Export Compliance: Best Practices in High Volume Screening
During our recent webinar with American Shipper, “Export Compliance: Best Practices in High Volume Screening,” industry experts discussed the latest trends and best practices in export screening. The attendees asked some excellent questions, but the one-hour time slot did not allow enough time to answer them all. As promised, we compiled all of the questions asked during the webinar, and their responses. Here are a few:
Q: Verizon screens customers and employees. Does it also screen other parties such as suppliers and banks?
A: That periodic screening is only for Verizon employees and customers. However, in transactional screening we screen all parties associated to that transaction, customer and contracts associated to the customer (there is no exception).
Q: Do companies make case by case decisions as to whether or not to do business with denied entities?
A: A company should never do business with a denied party. Our software allows users to research potential hits and make a determination if they are potentially doing business with a denied party. We track users and their decisions to provide complete accountability.
Q: What is the assessment of the consolidated US Government screening solution that's now available online?
A: The consolidated list that's now posted only includes a portion of the lists that need to be checked and is US centric. It alone is not sufficient to ensure you or your organization is not doing business with a restricted party. There are literally dozens of other lists including the United Nations and many others around the world that also need to be considered.
Q: What is an exporter's responsibility if they sell to reputable distributors and don't know who the end user/customer is?
A: If your organization is the US Principal Party in Interest, then you are ultimately responsible. The other consideration is what’s your appropriate level of due diligence to ensure you and your distributor are appropriately screening? How do you know the distributor is screening? Have you asked? How far do you need to go to ensure compliance? The answer to that question depends on the circumstances and if you are aware of any red flags. You can ask questions until you are comfortable with your distributor’s trade compliance program? Have or can they prove to you they have a comprehensive effort that complies with the letter and spirit of the law? How much exposure, risk and liability are you willing to take on without knowing the ultimate end-use and end-user of your products or services? What’s your relationship with your distributors? Do you trust them? Again, what proof do you have they are screening?
Q: What are some best practices around positive hit escalation where the screening system does not strictly block the transaction?
A: If you have a potential hit, most of our customers will put the transaction on hold and work diligently to clear the party in question. Our workflow allows users by organization to work the issue and escalate to management as necessary. We provide a number of additional attributes, source list documentation and even pictures to help resolve the potential hit.
Q: Are companies required to screen their Customers or Vendors personnel or is it sufficient to screen the company you are contracting with as long as contract or POs identify the company is responsible for compliance? If so how do you a manage phone calls, etc.
A: In most cases screening the customer or vendor is sufficient. If the personnel's information is available, for example your contact at ABC company then it would be considered a best practice to screen that contact as well. When it comes to phone calls and interaction with personnel, it really depends on how sensitive the information you are communicating is.
Q: How do you handle Chinese or other language character sets?
A: Other character sets (Arabic, Japanese, etc) are published with a transcribed English phrase so that screening can be performed using both the English and local language character sets.
To view all the questions and answers, please click here.
