The United States International Trade Commission recently released a report stating small and medium-sized U.S. businesses are disproportionately affected by certain trade barriers with the EU as compared to their larger counterparts. Several factors contribute to this discrepancy, especially cost; most expenses in international trade compliance are fixed regardless of company size and quantity of items shipped. This dramatically limits the trade process for small and mid-size companies.

Amber Road is now a publicly traded company! It listed as AMBR on the New York Stock Exchange on March 21, 2014. The video below captures the excitement of the company's initial public offering from the floor of the NYSE to its offices around the globe.

We’re sure it happens all the time: your company receives a product order, but you can’t decide whether to send it to the account address or the shipping address. However, if those two addresses are in Iran and Dubai, and your product could potentially be used in nuclear programs, you may want to double-check where your shipment is headed – or you could get slapped with a $90,000 fine.

That’s what happened to Lee Specialties, a Canadian manufacturer of oil field equipment, when they shipped rubber circles known as Viton o-rings to Iran in January 2012.

Global trade has an even farther reach than you may realize. Did you know?

• There are over 250 restricted party lists published by governments and organizations worldwide?
• All current Free Trade Agreements cover 65% of global GDP?
• From 2003 - 2010, investment and trade between the EU and India more than tripled?

Discover more about these and other trade statistics for China, NAFTA, freight logistics and others that will leave you thinking about the complex world we live in.

Amber Road would like to thank all of those who attended the first webinar in our three-part Export Compliance Webinar Series. During this series, we address three key steps involved in building an export compliance program, and show you how Export On-Demand can help you get started. The first webinar focused on Restricted Party Screening (RPS), and the attendees asked some great questions. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and were unable to answer all of them. The presenters, Scott Byrnes and Scott Parker, were kind enough to provide us with written responses to those questions. Here are a few:

Survey Shows Midsized Companies Continue to Struggle with Export Compliance

US exports are on the rise - not only in the volume and value, but also in the number of destinations companies are exporting to. As companies continue to expand into new markets, they must also expand their trade compliance programs. A recent survey conducted by Amber Road found that midsized companies are having a tough time keeping up with all the changes.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has reached a $115,000 civil settlement with tech company Intevac, Inc. They committed five violations of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), the first of which occurred in 2007, when Intevac released sensitive material to a Russian national employee for a product used in hard disk drive manufacturing. Intevac did not have the deemed export license required to release the information to that employee and thus, violated the regulation.

Amber Road would like to thank all of those who attended the final webinar in our three-part Export Compliance Webinar Series. During this series, we addressed three key steps involved in building an export compliance program, and showed you how Export On-Demand can help you get started. The third webinar focused on Shipment Screening & Documentation, and the attendees asked some great questions. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and were unable to answer all of them. The presenters, Scott Byrnes and Scott Parker, were kind enough to provide us with written responses to those questions.

Here are a few: