3 Tips Guaranteed To Get Your Goods Through Customs Unscathed That You Can Follow Now

The extra tariffs, the returned goods and the angry calls from customers when their new scanner has been held up at customs

We all know how frustration red tape can be.

This is especially true when importing goods from overseas or trying to make an honest buck as a reseller listing items from a dropshipper online, or selling your own stock on your own site or on other eBay alternatives sites.

So it’s especially important to avoid the long arm of the customs official when importing or exporting goods for sale.

It will come as no surprise to many that counterfeit products are a big no no, the US customs department seized US$221.7 million (ipdragon.blogspot.com/2009/01/us-customs-seizure-statistics-2008.html) worth of counterfeit goods from China in 2008 but there a whole list of other items out there that can cause problems with trade officials.

Some of the things you can do to keep up to date with the latest customs information are:

• Trade newspapers and online trade journals like journal of commerce (joc.com)
• In ecommerce and trade forums like the wholesale forums (thewholesaleforums.co.uk/forum/)
• Or straight from the horses mouth from the customs sites themselves.

Sometimes the customs site itself can be extremely difficult to find in itself… It’s almost as if they want to keep the regulations a secret.

But there are collections of sites out there like the Chinavasion Customs Websites & Public Import Information.

However if you follow all of those steps and still find the odd item or shipment causing strife with the trade official don’t worry too much… Sometimes even the watchdogs (joc.com/node/409963) get it wrong.

So before you make that next purchase or sale take a moment to go through the relevant Customs Websites & Public Import Information to avoid a situation which could otherwise ruin a perfectly fine day.