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Chris Malta and
Robin Cowie are the Writers and Hosts of the show.
Chris Malta is the
Founder and CEO of Worldwide Brands, the Internet's leading Product
Sourcing Experts. He is the Product Sourcing Editor for The eBay Radio
Show, author of several EBooks, and co-Author of "What To Sell on eBay
and Where To Get It", published by McGraw-Hill. Chris has a 30 year
background in wholesale, retail and Entrepreneurial business.
Robin Cowie is a Partner in Worldwide Brands. He is a highly talented Business Development and
Marketing Specialist, and a well known Television & Movie Producer. He
is known in the movie industry as one of the producers of "The Blair
Witch Project"; just one of his many successful Entrepreneurial
endeavors.
The Internet's recognized
leader in EBiz Product Sourcing,
Worldwide Brands connects Online Sellers with highly qualified
wholesale suppliers.
Worldwide Brands is the ONLY publisher of Wholesale Product Sourcing
information that is Certified by eBay. We are the Product Sourcing
Editors for The eBay Radio Show, and are Speakers at the eBay National
Convention every year. |
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| Show Date: 1/21/2008 |
| Segment 1 – Limiting Your Importing Liability |
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Colette: Thanks for joining us today. I’m Colette Marshall, Worldwide Brands Business Development Manager, and I’m sitting in for Chris Malta and Robin Cowie today. Importing is one of the more complicated forms of product sourcing, but the benefits are tremendous. That’s why it’s worth the trouble to make sure that you’re complying with customs regulations and doing your importing right so that you can enjoy those considerable cost savings and get those unique cutting edge new products. Today we’re talking with Kelby Woodard of TradeInnovations.com about your responsibility as an importer and how you can make sure that you and your eBiz are in good legal shape.
Colette: Kelby, welcome to the show.
Kelby: Thanks for having me.
Colette: Let’s get straight to it, Kelby. Importer’s liability, what is that, what are the things we need to know as online sellers when we’re going to get into importing?
Kelby: Okay. Of course, any time you’re selling anything in the United States there is a liability associated with that. You need to make sure that it’s a product that conforms to what you’re selling and that it conforms to all the U.S. regulations for domestic sales. But when you add the factor of importing it becomes ever more complex, because you’ve got issues with identifying the right people to source that product from overseas and while that geographic distance may seem smaller in today’s internet world, it still can be pretty great when it comes to cultural differences and understanding. So sometimes when you’re talking to an overseas manufacturer for a product what you think is generally understood by them and by you may not actually be well understood. So there are a lot of cultural and communication errors that can occur during that sourcing process, which is why it’s important to either visit that particular location, whether it’s in China or wherever it may be around the world, to gain that personal relationship, or to use somebody here domestically that you trust that can do that for you, a company or a consulting firm that can do some of that legwork for you. So when you look at the liability aspect of it and why it’s more difficult for imports you have to add the customs liability. So while you’re bringing that shipment into the United States you have to make sure that all the regulations of imports are being followed. So as I’m sure everybody is aware of, there’s an increased focus by the U.S. government on regulations from importing, primarily because of the quality assurance issues that we’ve seen out of China.
Colette: Right.
Kelby: As well as some of the food security scares we’ve seen. So that added complexity just adds one more layer of liability into your product when you do import.
Colette: And it’s not only China.
Kelby: Correct.
Colette: The media definitely talks about China all the time, especially with the upcoming Olympics, we’re going to hear China even more than we hear it today. There are many other countries that are actually more critical with more regulations than China that you just need to be aware of.
Kelby: That’s correct. China is just the big gorilla, they’re easy to pick on.
Colette: (Laughter)
Kelby: That’s right.
Colette: So I’ve heard this term quite a lot: informed compliance.
Kelby: Right.
Colette: What does that mean?
Kelby: It actually is a term that’s in language that congress passed back in 1992 called the Mod Act. And it’s the Modernization Act for the U.S. Customs Service. And what it required was it changed dramatically the way product is imported into the United States whereas traditionally, before that time, the customs broker actually handled the entire process and was really responsible for that import. That changed with the Mod Act. The Mod Act had two different key pieces to it and one of them is informed compliance. By informed compliance it means that the U.S. government will make sure that they have all the knowledge necessary, either by website, by publications, for an importer to understand how to be compliant with U.S. laws and regulations regarding imports. In exchange for that, that means that the U.S. importer is now fully liable for any misunderstanding of those regulations or any time that they violate those regulations. So that can be up and including to jail time for an importer who fails to follow the proper regulations if the U.S. government finds that fraud is the case in that particular importer.
Colette: The ultimate responsibility is on the seller.
Kelby: On the buyer.
Colette: On the buyer, sorry. The ultimate responsibility is on the buyer. And you can use a lot of different services in between, but the ultimate responsibility comes to you being the buyer.
Kelby: Correct.
Kelby: It is time for a short break. We have a lot more to talk about with Kelby Woodard when we return. Go to ProductSourcingShow.com to listen to any of our past shows, read written transcripts, link to our pod casts and more. I’m Colette Marshall. We will be right back with lots to learn from Kelby Woodard of TradeInnovations.com.
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