International Shipping Guide for Distributors

International shipping is a landed-cost problem that happens to involve a vessel. Product + ocean or air + fuel + origin fees + insurance + duty + Section 301 if it applies + broker + ISF + port/demurrage + dray + inland + the cash you sit on for 50–70 days. A 'great' $6.40 FOB that lands at $11.15 is a different SKU. Quote the $11.15.

Model by origin, mode, and cadence. A weekly air carton and a monthly 20-foot container do not share a unit cost. Neither shares a stockout risk. If your buyer wants weekly freshness on an ocean cadence, you are in the air-freight business or you are in the disappointment business.

CBP's basic import guidance is the public door. Your broker is the person who keeps you out of a hold. Vet them like a supplier.

The ICC Incoterms 2020 rules define where cost and risk transfer. They do not define title, payment, or whether the goods are legal to sell. Write the term, the named place, and the version — 'FOB Shanghai Incoterms 2020' — not 'FOB.' Vague FOB is how you discover you own a damaged pallet on a dock you have never seen.

EXW: you own the pickup at their door. Cheap quote, expensive amateur hour. FOB (port): they get it over the rail of the vessel; you own ocean and after. CIF/CIP: they buy insurance and main carriage to a named place; read who really books and who files the claim. DAP/DPU/DDP: they bring it closer; DDP means they are playing importer, which many factories cannot actually do in the U.S. If a factory offers DDP and cannot name the IOR, you are the importer anyway.

FCA is often cleaner than EXW for containers. DDP is often a fantasy. FAS still exists and still surprises people. Put the term on the PO, the invoice, and the insurance certificate. If those three disagree, you will meet a claim adjuster who can read.

U.S. Section 301 tariffs on certain Chinese-origin goods are not a footnote. They can add 7.5–25% (and in some lists more) on top of ordinary duty depending on the HTS and the list in force the day the goods enter. A quote that ignores 301 is not a quote. Check the HTS with the broker before you price the year.

Lists change. Exclusions appear and die. The USTR Section 301 page and your broker's notice are the sources — not a Facebook group and not last year's spreadsheet. If you reprint a price list in January on October's duty assumption, you can give away a year.

Country of origin is a fact, not a shipping location. Transshipment stories that 'make it Vietnam' without substantial transformation are how you buy a penalty. If the deal only works if the origin is a rumor, walk.

Importer Security Filing (10+2) is due 24 hours before lading on ocean. Late ISF is a $5,000-class problem and a late container. Give the broker the 10 data elements while the cargo is still at origin, not when the vessel is on the water.

Commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, and any FDA/USDA/FCC paper must match — description, qty, value, mid, HTS. Inconsistencies are holds. Holds are demurrage. Demurrage is how a $1,800 ocean savings becomes a $4,200 weekend.

Classification is not a creative-writing exercise. Census Schedule B / HTS and the HTS are the language. A 'parts' dump code that underpays duty is a retroactive bill with interest. Pay the broker to classify the new SKU once, then lock it in the item file.

If you ship outbound internationally — a customer in Canada, a return to a factory, a sale to a Caribbean door — AES filing and export classification show up. Your forwarder can file. You still own the data. Undervalued exports and missing EEI are not a small-company exemption you want to test.

Warranty returns crossing a border need the same paper discipline as the inbound. A 'just send it back' carton will sit. Write the RMA and the term for the reverse lane before you need it.

Denied-party screening sounds like enterprise software. It is also a checkbox your forwarder should run. If you sell industrial goods, ask them to show you the screen. Ignorance is not a compliance program.

Worked compare. Import: $8.00 FOB, ocean+dray $1.35, ordinary duty $0.40, Section 301 $1.20, broker/ISF/insurance $0.28, inland $0.22 → $11.45 landed, 58 days door to pick face. Domestic authorized: $10.20 delivered in 8 days. Sell $16.80. Import GP$ $5.35 but you carry 8 weeks and you ate a 12-day port delay last time. Domestic GP$ $6.60 and you can reorder twice while the vessel thinks about it. You import the C-item novelty. You buy domestic on the A item that closes Tuesday.

That is the only decision that matters. Not 'we are an import house' as an identity.

Insurance: cargo 'all risk' with a named place that matches the Incoterm. EXW with no cargo cover from their curb is how you own a forklift hole you will never photograph in time.

Booked, gated in, aboard, departed, arrived, discharged, ISF/entry accepted, released, picked up, delivered to your dock, received. Ten statuses. 'Delayed' is not one of them — delayed to what date, next check when. CS should read the same screen as the broker.

Demurrage and detention clocks start when the terminal says they start, not when you noticed the email. Assign a person who looks at the clock daily on every open container. A $150/day mistake is a management system, not bad luck.

After each shipment, variance the landed cost against the model. If fuel, 301, or dray moved, update the item cost before sales quotes the next quarter. Silent cost moves are how a 22% deal becomes 16% without anyone lying.

Air is a failure code unless the SKU is a true emergency (medical, a production line down) and the customer will pay. A $4.80/lb air lift on a $8.00 FOB novelty is how you teach purchasing that forecasts do not matter. Log every air shipment with a reason. Two in a quarter on the same SKU means the ROP is wrong.

Split containers — some SKUs by air, the rest by ocean — only work if you can receive two ways and the item file can stand two landed costs. Average costing across air and ocean will lie to sales. Keep the lots separate until you know what you are doing.

Peak-season surcharges and rolled vessels are not force majeure on your customer promise unless you said so. Build 10–14 days of slack into Q4 ocean if that is when your doors live. The CBP hold you did not expect is also not the customer's problem unless you warned them at PO.

Name the importer of record on the PO. If it is you, your bond, your HTS, your 301 exposure. If a 'DDP factory' cannot produce a U.S. IOR and a bond, you are the IOR with extra steps. Do not let sales accept a DDP email from a factory that has never cleared a U.S. entry.

Power of attorney to the broker is a controlled document. One broker of record for a lane, a backup named, and a revocation you know how to send. Two brokers filing two stories on the same entry is how you meet CBP twice.

Related-party valuation and first-sale programs are above this guide. If a factory offers a valuation story that 'everyone uses,' call the broker and, if the dollars are large, counsel. Under-valuation is not a landed-cost tactic. It is a penalty with interest.