I recently presented on working with the freight forwarder at the Export Controls: Awareness and Application seminar held at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond, WA on 31 July 2012.  Good crowd, good speakers.  All presentations were made available on CD for seminar attendees.  If you know my presentation style, you know my slides alone [...]

A question from a reader:

When a customs broker is the importer of record, for liability purposes, how is that different from that of the actual importer? In other words is there a difference between the importer and the importer of record?

For example, for surety purposes, customs would go to the importer of record, but what [...]

As if I haven’t enough to do.

Geek watchers know that, in addition to the elearning, I’ve been dabbling in some web video.  Well I started doing odd jobs for others here and there, and have been encouraged to branch out.  “Import/export compliance training is too small of a niche.”  “Do custom development on a contract [...]

This question in from a reader.

My friend recently shipped Bananas from the Philippines to the middle east by CNF. The middle east buyer has not shown up to pick up the goods from Customs. The container of Bananas is presently being held by Customs. The goods have not been “Seized” by customs. [...]

Is it the new Immediate Delivery?

Anyone that knows me knows that I like to play a little devil’s advocate.  Here I go again.

Simplified Entry has me scratching my head.  Pull up a CBP form 3461.  What’s it say near the top?  “ENTRY/IMMEDIATE DELIVERY”.  Ever wonder what Immediate Delivery is?

Long ago, shipments arriving in the U.S. [...]

A while back, I talked about Blind Mules, where SENTRI card holders with expedited, supposedly trusted, Customs processing privileges on the southern border, were being targeted by drug smugglers to transport their wares.  I posed the question of whether C-TPAT members might similarly be targeted for nefarious activities.

Apparently, I was correct.  Click on the link [...]

Sorry, I’ve been off the grid for a while.  But I came across this today that was too good not to share, so I’m back on the wagon.

Those of you familiar with filing Electronic Export Information (EEI) with the Bureau of the Census’ Automated Export System (AES) will recognize this as an error when AES [...]

Go to www.bis.doc.gov and you get the below screenshot.  Nice.

I’m just back from the BIS Export Control Forum in Irvine, CA where they rolled this out.  Too busy catching up so I haven’t had time to explore it, but I’m hearing that, once you get used to it, it’s organization is a big [...]

Salman Khan talks about his amazing Khan Academy.

They preferred him on YouTube to in-person.  Because they can pause and repeat without feeling like they are wasting his time.  They can go back and review something. If they’re bored, they can move ahead.   They can watch at their own time, their own pace.

Self-paced learning!  What a [...]

Your friend buys a course, you earn a commission.  Simple!  Cool!  The video shows how.

Yes, that would be a 1956 Ford Thunderbird, like the one Suzanne Somers drove in American Graffiti.  The first generation T-Bird (1955-1957) was the only part of the lineage to be a two-seater roadster.  It came standard with a 292 cubic inch (about 4.8 [...]