Hi, I’m Cliff Ennico, legal editor of SBTV.com with some tips on launching an export business. So you have been selling stuffs online for a while, say on ebay or amazon, and all of a sudden, you find that a lot of Brazilians are bidding on your stuff. Apparently there is a huge market in Brazil for something that most people here in the US don’t need or want. All of a sudden you realize, hey, I should be selling in Brazil. Congratulations, you are now in the export business. How do you go about building a successful export business from the US to in any foreign country? Well there are a number of things you need, first you need a couple of books, and the book that I recommend you begin with is a book by a gentleman named Thomas Johnson, it’s called Export-Import Procedures and Documentation. That’s a pretty hefty title, it’s also an expensive book, it’s gonna set you back about 80, 90 bucks at your local bookstore or on amazon.com, but it’s a book that’s well worth having. Because when you go into the export business you have to become an expert on export documentation. And what Mr. Johnson does in his book, he really gives you a lot of very good examples of how to do that paper work the right way and also the wrong way to. He gives you examples to a common mistakes people make. This is very important, because when you export stuffs from the US, the general rule is as an exporter, you do not have to worry about customs in foreign countries, that’s the law. But the reality is, yes you do have to worry about customs in foreign countries, especially if the people you’re selling to are consumers or small businesses in those foreign countries. If you do not fill out the export paperwork properly, what will happen is the goods will be held up in customs at the port of entry in Brazil, say Rio De Janeiro, and the poor person who lives inland is gonna have to slept a hundred miles to Rio De Janeiro to the customs office, which will usually located in a warehouse and he’s gonna have to negotiate with his local customs officials to get his goods into the country, that he already paid you for. He’s not gonna be happy about that. So when you’re in business, even though you’re not legally responsible for customs paperwork, it’s very important as an exporter that you get it right, because you’re customers will love you for it. You do not want to create any inconvenience to your customers, especially if they’re buying online, because they will hate you if you make their lives difficult that way, so that’s number one. Secondly, you look in to whether or not you need an export permits. Believe it or not, you do need permits to export certain goods from the US, especially if you’re exporting sensitive technology to countries with whom our relations are not all that great. So for example, if you are exporting laptop computers to certain middle eastern countries for example, you might need to have an export permit for that, especially if there’s any software on that laptop that someone could use to build a bomb or a missile or something like that. You laugh, but it really is true, that a lot of inscription technology for example that comes standard with some software packages can sometimes be reengineered to do some very nasty stuffs. So, learn the rules here, if you need an export permit get one. Number three, join your world trade association. This is very important, most, every state, and most large cities, especially port cities, cities near large bodies of water, have a world trade association or sometimes it’s called an International Trade Association. This is a wonderful place to get information about specifically what rules do you need to comply with for specific goods and commodities. What licenses and permits do you need. It’s a good place to get it for may be a hundred dollars a year in dues. Where do you find these organizations, well believe it or not they have a trade association, it’s called the Federation of International Trade Associations. Their website is www.FITA.org, or you can simply google the name of the state followed by International Trade Association or World Trade Associations. So, if you google Connecticut World Trade Association, you would probably be on the first page of it’s, find the state of Connecticut’s World Trade Association which happens to be base in Bridgefort. Last but not least, find a friend. Unless you are intimately familiar with the laws, taxes and customs of Brazil, or you speak fluent Portuguese, which most of us don’t, you will probably need to have the help of a local resident to help facilitate your export transactions to a foreign country. One of the best places to find these folks, believe it or not is ebay. Whether or not you’re selling on ebay, if you go to ebay.com and click on the community tab, which is in the upper right hand corner, just about every page in ebay, you will get to ebay’s community section and click on the link to user groups. Ebay has user groups in virtually every country on earth. There is absolutely a Brazilian user group, put an email up there, saying something, you know, hi, my name is so and so, I’m exporting, you know, hardwood from the US to Brazil, and I need some advice in dealing with local customs, laws, taxes, etcetera. I guarantee you will hear from one of these people, probably more than one, and you’ll be able to find the friend that you need. Whenever you’re selling overseas, it’s always a very good idea to have someone on the ground who has local knowledge. Who knows the local laws, taxes, customs, so that all your transactions proceeds smoothly. Yes, they’ll probably wanna piece of every transaction, but believe, but believe me, it’s well worth dealing, it will save you a lot of time, a lot of embarrassment, and will definitely keep you out of legal hot water in a foreign country where you simply don’t know what, what kind of laws in taxes they have. I’m Cliff Ennico, for SBTV.com.
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