Imagine a government agent contacting your company and asking to see a copy of your International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) or export compliance manual. What do you say? What do you do? Believe it or not, this scenario happens more often than you think. With more than 100,000 words in the ITAR publication, and over 800 pages in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), trying to grasp U.S. export laws is an intimidating task for anyone.
Here are key components to consider:
- Which regulations should be followed for your products and services? This is the first step towards compliance- ITAR or EAR?
- Are you shipping domestically or internationally? Are you exporting or re-exporting? Are you transferring data as part of the transaction? Who is receiving what you are sending, and what are they going to do with it in the next step? Answers to these questions are key-critical if you want to comply with export law.
- A thorough, accurate, detailed reading of the rules and regulations is absolutely necessary. There are many parts, sub-parts and details in the regulations, some quite clear and some that leave a broad pathway open for interpretation.
There’s no need to scratch your head as you try to translate all of this information. But don’t procrastinate about this important aspect of your business either, as fines and penalties for non-conformance by the governing agencies can run into the $100’s of thousands, with little chance of dismissal once filed. At Insyte Consulting, we partner with seasoned trade compliance experts to help you cut through the complexity and condense things down into practical, actionable steps. Call Dave Hanitz (716-982-6406) or Ryan Case (716-864-4329) to start the conversation that will begin to move your organization forward in export compliance.
