Sourcing Innovation Releases A New White Paper on "Why You Need Trade Visibility"

    HALIFAX, NS, February 27, 2009 MaiMai News -- Sourcing Innovation, a leading supply chain resource site for business and individuals seeking information on best practices and innovation in supply chain technologies and techniques, today announced the availability of its latest Illumination, a white paper on "Why You Need Trade Visibility", sponsored by Integration Point. The white paper on "Why You Need Trade Visibility" does a deep dive into the potential savings that can be uncovered by today's trade visibility offerings, as well as discusses how these tools can increase a company's rate of compliance with global trade regulations and free trade agreements.

Michael Lamoureux, Sourcing Innovation's editor, commented, "As highlighted in recent studies by Global Data Mining and the Aberdeen Group, an average mid-size importer is losing millions of dollars a year through sub-optimal global trade practices, sometimes through HTS misclassifications and missed free trade opportunities alone. A modern trade visibility system can immediately pinpoint classification inconsistencies and potential trade free agreement opportunities when an order is made and allow a trade professional to correct misclassifications and take advantage of these savings opportunities instantaneously."

Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) has identified the most common importer errors as: (1) poor communication between importer departments and/or between an importer and their broker which leads to incorrect assumptions; (2) incorrect identification of material components, molds, and equipment provided by the importer to a foreign manufacturer which leads to manufacturing assist classification errors; (3) importers not producing necessary records in a timely fashion; (4) claims for duty preferences (under free trade agreements) are incorrectly classified; and (5) special trade program usage is not properly monitored and resulting claims are not supportable. A trade visibility system can prevent all of these errors. All parties can utilize the system to access correct information at any time; material assists can be tracked and associated with all relevant orders up front; records can be generated automatically once all information has been input; duty preferences can be automatically generated based on inputs; and special trade program requirements can be tracked and verified.

Lamoureux added that "most companies don't understand how many savings opportunities they are missing, or how many compliance requirements there truly are, in their global trade activities. Considering that ARC Advisory Group found that a typical international transaction requires 35 documents across 25 parties complying with over 600 regulations and more than 500 trade agreements, a trade visibility solution is the only way a modern trade enterprise can truly guarantee compliance." The "Why You Need Trade Visibility" white paper can be downloaded at http://www.sourcinginnovation.com/illuminations/TradeVisibility.php

About Sourcing Innovation

Sourcing Innovation is the number one independent source for best practices, education, and innovation in sourcing, procurement, and supply management. It currently maintains the largest resource site in the supply chain space with over 2000 solution providers, events, blogs, publications, and training resources catalogued as well as one of the leading blogs with over 1,100 entries on key topics and technologies for supply chain professionals. For more information on Sourcing Innovation, visit http://www.sourcinginnovation.com.