Indirect Representation: Who Owes the Duty and the Import VAT
There is an assumption buried in most importer of record arrangements, and it is rarely said out loud. The assumption is that once another company is named on the declaration, the customs exposure moves to them. It is an understandable reading, and in the European Union it is half right. The half it gets wrong […]
Hong Kong SCTREX Registration Closes on 30 October 2026
Hong Kong’s Trade and Industry Department is taking registrations for the 2027 round of the Air Transhipment Cargo Exemption Scheme for Specified Strategic Commodities, usually shortened to SCTREX, and applications close on 30 October 2026. If your cargo moves strategic commodities through Hong Kong International Airport by air, or you handle cargo that does, that […]
DDP vs Importer of Record: Who Gets Named, and Who Pays
A DDP price answers a commercial question. Your supplier takes responsibility for getting the goods to the agreed destination, clearing them for import and bearing the duties and import taxes that DDP allocates, and you see one number instead of five. What the price does not tell you is whose name goes in the importer […]
How Late Is Too Late to Appoint an Importer of Record
Nobody asks this question early. It arrives once the booking is confirmed, or once the aircraft has already left, when somebody in the chain works out that there is no legal importer waiting at the other end. The tone is usually apologetic and the question is always the same, which is whether this can still […]
ATA Carnet vs Temporary Import Bond vs Importer of Record
It usually arrives as a document question. Do we need a carnet or a bond for this kit? That is the wrong question, and getting the answer wrong leaves companies with duty, penalties and a customs process nobody budgeted for. The real question is whether the equipment is coming back. That one decides which routes […]
UFLPA Detentions: What the Importer of Record Has to Prove
Most import rules ask you to declare what something is. This one asks you to prove what it is not. That single inversion is why the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act catches technology importers who thought it was somebody else’s problem, and why the importer of record is the party expected to assemble and present […]
What the Importer of Record Will Be Carrying by 2028
Five regulatory regimes, working on unrelated problems, have moved the same way this year. Each one wants an identifiable party to answer for an import, and each one defines that party for itself. Commercial paperwork collapses all of them into a single word: importer. The law does not. That gap is the subject of this […]
Importer of Record for Technology Resellers: The VAT in Your DDP Quote
The deal is signed. The customer is in a country where you have no entity, no registration and no intention of opening one. Procurement asked for delivered to site, and you quoted it, because the competitor who said “ex works, you sort out customs” lost. Now somebody has to be named as importer. Whether that […]
Importer of Record for System Integrators: Multi-Vendor Projects
An integrator sells one solution at one price. Customs values goods, not solutions. That gap is where integration projects come unstuck, and it is almost never in the project plan. The import conversation usually starts with who signs the declaration. It should start earlier, with what the declaration is going to say. Carra Globe provides […]
Import IT Equipment into the Philippines Without a Local Entity
The Customs Modernization and Tariff Act does not define “importer” in its definitions section, and it does not define “consignee” there either. The statute that governs every Philippine import uses both words throughout without ever setting out what they mean. So the question “can my company be the importer of record in the Philippines” cannot […]