DDP vs DAP: Which Incoterm Should You Ship Under, and the Trap Most Sellers Miss
The difference between DDP vs DAP comes down to one thing: under DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) the seller clears customs and pays the import duty in the destination country, while under DAP (Delivered At Place) the buyer does. Both terms put the seller in charge of transport and transit risk, so that single split at […]
Importer of Record for Renewable Energy Equipment: Clearing Solar, Battery Storage, and Wind Hardware Against a Grid Deadline
A renewable energy project lives or dies by its connection date. The grid slot is booked, the financing is modelled against it, and the power purchase agreement assumes it. Yet the equipment that has to be in the ground by that date, the solar modules and inverters, the battery storage systems, and the wind turbine […]
Importer of Record in the GCC: A Structural Guide to Customs Compliance Across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain
As tariff volatility and tightening enforcement reshape Western trade lanes, more multinational shippers are looking to the Gulf. The six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council are investing heavily in technology, infrastructure, healthcare, and energy, and demand for compliant import structures across the region has risen sharply. But the GCC is not a single market […]
Importer of Record for Data Centre Equipment: Clearing Transformers, Cooling, and Power Hardware Against a Build Deadline
A data centre does not go live when the servers arrive. It goes live when the power and cooling are in place, and that is the equipment most likely to be stuck at a border. The transformers, switchgear, uninterruptible power supplies, chillers, and liquid-cooling systems that a facility runs on are heavy, high in value, […]
The EU De Minimis Importer of Record Problem: Why Parcels Without a Declarant Will Be Returned From 1 July 2026
Update, 28 July 2026: The EU de minimis reform took effect on 1 July 2026 and France’s abolition of one-off fiscal representation under Regime 42 took effect on 1 January 2026, so both changes described here are now live rather than pending. This guide has been updated accordingly. The central point stands: since 1 July, […]
Importer of Record for Aerospace and Defence: Cross-Border Compliance for Controlled and High-Value Components
In aerospace and defence, a single grounded component can stop an entire programme. An aircraft on the ground waiting for a part, an AOG situation, burns money by the hour, and a defence contractor that misses a delivery milestone risks the contract behind it. The parts themselves are rarely simple to move: many are export-controlled, […]
Section 122 Has Expired: What Importers Who Paid the Surcharge Should Do About Refunds
The Section 122 tariffs expired at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on 24 July 2026, at the end of their 150-day statutory life, and Congress did not extend them. At the same moment, a new Section 301 action on forced labour took effect and replaced them for most origins, so the expiry did not bring the […]
When a Medical Device Is Stuck at Customs, a Patient Is Waiting: A Guide to the Importer of Record for Medical Devices
Somewhere right now, a hospital biomedical team is checking a tracking number for the third time that morning. The analyser they need is in the country. It cleared the airport. And it is going nowhere, because the health authority will not release it until a registration detail is resolved, and that could take days. A […]
USMCA Review July 2026: How the Three North American Tariff Deadlines Resolved, and Where Importers Stand Now
Through the first half of 2026, three North American trade deadlines were converging within weeks of each other, and together they threatened to reprice duty exposure across the US, Canada, and Mexico corridor. All three have now passed. The USMCA review 2026 took place on 1 July, Canada’s steel and aluminium remissions faced a 30 […]
Importer of Record for AI Servers and GPU Clusters: Country-by-Country Compliance for Data Centre Deployments
Deploying AI infrastructure across multiple countries is one of the most demanding import challenges in logistics today. A GPU cluster bound for a data centre is high in value, tight on timeline, heavy on regulation, and often headed to several countries at once under a single deployment programme. Each destination has its own import rules, […]