The U.S. has seen record-setting export growth over the last several years. U.S. exports during the first quarter of 2014 totaled $576.3 billion, exceeding the first quarter of 2013 by 3.2%, and reaching a record total of $2.3 trillion at the end of last year. In February, the U.S. Commerce Department reported exports rose to $193.9 billion from $190 billion. In March, the U.S. expanded exports to Canada, South Korea, and the countries in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement. Additionally, the U.S. Import-Export Bank found that the countries with the largest annualized increase in U.S. good purchases were Panama, Russia, Peru, Hong Kong, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, United Arab Emirates, China, and Indonesia.

As midsized companies expand services into emerging or new foreign markets, they must also expand their export compliance programs. Amber Road surveyed over 360 midsized companies to learn more about the specific export compliance challenges they are facing and found that across the business sector, many compliance teams are lacking senior management involvement and process automation. However, companies that choose to invest in compliance best practices and involve senior management early on in the process have greater competitive advantage.                      

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 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.

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:

tablishing an Export Compliance Program (ECP) can be a daunting task. So far in our Export Compliance Webinar Series, we have addressed two of the three key steps of building an ECP, Restricted Party Screening and Product Classification.

Xylem Inc., a leading global water technology company, needed a simple to use, flexible, fully automated screening solution that also managed its export and import data and could be deployed quickly without costly software or hardware. Xylem turned to Amber Road’s Export On-Demand solution to automate all aspects of export compliance for 300 worldwide users across 150 countries.