Importer of Record for Robotics & Industrial Automation 2027
On 20 January 2027 the EU rulebook for machinery changes, and the part that matters most to anyone shipping robots is easy to miss. The importer stops being a bystander and gets an article of its own. Under Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, conformity responsibilities sit with the manufacturer or its authorised representative. Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 adds […]
Import IT Equipment into Vietnam Without a Local Entity
A foreign company cannot make itself the importer in Vietnam by contract alone. Not through a service, and not because a provider says otherwise. In the ordinary structure for a shipment with no local entity, a Vietnamese trader imports in its own name and the declaration carries that company’s details. “Import without a local entity” […]
Importer of Record for Automotive Electronics and EV Components
Customs can release a shipment of traction inverters that cannot lawfully be fitted to a single vehicle. Nothing has gone wrong at the border. Clearance and approval are separate systems, run by different authorities, and only one of them is customs. That gap is where vehicle programmes lose weeks. The parts land, the invoice is […]
EU Dual-Use Export Controls 2026: AI & IT Hardware Guide
A rack of accelerated servers sits in an EU warehouse, sold to a customer outside the Union. The freight is booked and the export declaration is drafted. Whether it can lawfully leave depends on the EU dual-use control list, and on a question most shipments never ask, which is who, in law, is the exporter. […]
India IT Hardware Import Authorisation 2026: DGFT IMS for Servers
Your customer in India has signed the order. Your freight forwarder has quoted. Your Importer of Record is appointed and the hardware is built. None of that, by itself, gets servers into India. Servers commonly classify under HSN 8471, and in 2023 India moved specified IT hardware under that heading from free to restricted import […]
Brazil REDATA Law 15.504/2026: Data Centre Import Tax Rules
A vendor gets a Brazilian data centre enquiry and someone mentions REDATA. Federal taxes suspended on qualifying imported equipment: import duty, PIS, Cofins, IPI. On a container of servers those numbers are substantial, and the quotation suddenly looks very different. Then the shipment arrives and the taxes are assessed in full. Nothing went wrong procedurally. […]
How to Verify an Importer of Record Provider
You asked ChatGPT or Perplexity for an importer of record provider, and got a confident answer with three or four names in it. That answer was assembled from signals, and it is worth knowing which ones, because they are not the signals that determine whether your shipment clears. Worth separating this from a related question […]
Importing Used IT Equipment: Why “Refurbished” Is Not Enough
A pallet of three-year-old servers leaves a decommissioned European data centre. They were working when they were pulled from the racks. The buyer in Lagos has paid. The commercial invoice says “refurbished IT equipment,” which everybody involved considers an accurate description. At the destination, an inspector opens the crate and asks a question nobody prepared […]
Indonesia TKDN for IT Hardware: Why Imports Don’t Qualify
A vendor wins a shortlist place for an Indonesian government data centre. The hardware side is familiar: racks, switches, storage. The equipment is certified, the price is competitive, the local partner is in place. Then the tender documents ask for an Indonesia TKDN certificate and a score. The instinct is to treat that as another […]
Spare Parts Customs Clearance: Why Emergencies Get Stuck
A line card fails in a Jakarta data centre at two in the morning. The spare is on a shelf in Frankfurt. Your SLA says four hours to respond and next business day to restore, the customer is already escalating, and somebody books the fastest courier available. Four days later the part is still at […]