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Articles and Guides

Shipping Indian Factory Goods to Amazon FBA

This guide covers the plumbing between an Indian factory and an Amazon fulfilment centre: who is the importer, who preps and labels, how cartons must be packed and which route the goods take. Amazon is never your importer, and in the US prep is now the seller's job, so the factory needs a clear spec.

Importing Wood, Cane and Natural-Fibre Goods Into Australia and NZ

Australia and New Zealand treat wooden, cane, bamboo and natural-fibre goods as a plant risk, sorted by material rather than product. This guide walks an Indian natural-goods order from workshop to wharf: cleaning, treatment, the storage window, packaging and arrival. It also shows how to check the treatment provider and read BICON and the MPI standard.

EU CBAM for Importers of Steel, Aluminium and Fasteners

How the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, in its definitive phase since 1 January 2026, affects a buyer of Indian steel, aluminium and fasteners. It covers the three tests for whether you are in, the 2027 payment calendar, and the emissions data to ask your Indian supplier for.

Choosing a Freight Forwarder, Your Own or the Supplier's

Whether to let your Indian supplier choose the forwarder or bring your own depends on shipment size, frequency and value. The supplier's forwarder is fine for small, simple shipments with every charge quoted in writing. For full containers or regular orders, buy FOB or FCA with your own forwarder and compare quotes in five blocks.

How to Check a Supplier Against FDA Import Alerts Before You Ship

An FDA import alert lets the FDA hold a firm's or product's shipments at the US border without examining them, so the importer must prove the problem does not apply. This guide explains red, green and country-wide lists, which alerts matter most for Indian goods, and a ten-minute routine to check a supplier before you ship.

Forced Labour and Modern Slavery Checks for Importers

What the US, EU, UK and Australian forced-labour and modern slavery rules ask of a small importer buying from India. It shows where the documented risks sit in Indian supply chains, what a SMETA audit does and does not prove, and a set of fair checks to run with suppliers.

Importer of Record and Who Controls Your Customs Declaration

The importer of record is the party customs holds responsible for an entry, and it controls the classification, the value, any preference claim, refunds and liability. This guide shows how that control slips to an Indian supplier or its courier, what changes by country, and four habits to take it back.

How to Recover a Deposit Your Supplier Kept

What to do when an overseas supplier, often an Indian one, has your deposit and has stopped answering. It sets out the first 48 hours by payment method, a ladder of recovery routes from a dated demand to the DGFT complaint and a visit, and why suing at home may not help.

How to Test Whether a Second Country Can Make Your Product Under China+1

China+1 works product by product, not country by country. This guide gives seven tests that start with your product and market: capability in your own customs data, input sources, duty on both sides, origin rules, lead time by leg, real landed cost and a pilot order. India is the worked example.

Cotton Fibre Origin, Organic Claims and Traceability Explained

Where your cotton was grown now decides whether goods clear US customs and, from December 2027, whether they can be sold in the EU. This guide explains fibre origin, what organic certificates prove and where they break, the four tools that trace cotton, and how to ask an Indian maker to prove fibre origin.

Paid Full Duty by Mistake? How to Claim FTA Duty Back

How to claim back duty you paid when a trade agreement or GSP rate should have applied, or a tariff was struck down, for Indian goods into Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US and the EU. It covers the three entitlement checks, each market's route and deadline, the evidence brokers ask for, and why claims fail.

What Gets Food Rejected at the Border and How to Test Before You Ship

Each border tests imported food for different things: the EU hunts pesticide residues, the US acts mostly on firms through import alerts, and Australia tests risk foods against its own Food Standards Code. This guide uses about 22,000 official records on Indian food to show how to build a test panel per destination and test before you ship.

Wood Packaging Rules (ISPM 15) for Pallets, Crates and Dunnage

ISPM 15 is the international rule for raw wood packaging such as pallets, crates and dunnage: it must be debarked, treated and marked, whatever the product inside. This guide explains how to read the mark, what is exempt, what each market does without it, and the purchase order clause to use for Indian shipments.

Low-Value Import Rules by Country for Selling Direct From Overseas

How Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the EU, the US and the UAE tax a small parcel sold direct to a consumer, as of 28 September 2026. It explains who collects the tax, when parcels beat a consolidated lot, and why shipping on an Indian supplier's courier account hands the customs entry to the courier.

Timber-Legality Rules by Country for Importing Wood Products

What the EU deforestation regulation, the US Lacey Act, Australia's illegal logging law, the UK Timber Regulation and New Zealand's coming rules ask of an importer of wood products. It explains the four questions every timber law asks, why Indian trade names for species are loose, the sheesham permit route, and how a Jodhpur furniture order plays out in each market.

Proof of Origin Certificates, Self-Declarations and Importer's Knowledge

Proof of origin is the document that unlocks a trade agreement's lower duty, and it comes in three kinds: an authority's certificate, the exporter's own declaration, and the importer's knowledge. This guide explains who signs each, who answers when customs checks later, and which one to use for Indian goods into the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the EU.

How Free Trade Agreements Cut Your Duty

How a trade agreement's schedule stages the duty on your tariff line, why the day your goods are entered decides the rate, and when it pays to wait for a start date. India is the worked example, with New Zealand's agreement started on 20 October 2026 and Australia's phase-down finished on 1 January 2026.

How to Find the HS Code for Your Product

How the Harmonized System is built, how to classify a product yourself under the six interpretation rules, and when a binding ruling is worth the wait. It shows why an Indian supplier's code is only a hint, what a wrong code costs, and how one cotton T-shirt carries a different national code in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand.

How to Work Out the Real Import Duty on Any Product

A seven-step method for getting from the rate on a tariff screen to the import duty you actually pay, for any product into any country. It covers the base rate, earning a preference, stacked duties, the valuation basis and the tax on top, with one Indian cotton T-shirt worked through into Australia, the US and the UK.

Rules of Origin Explained: How Goods Qualify for FTA Duty Rates

Rules of origin decide whether a product made in India actually qualifies for a trade agreement's lower duty, based on what happened inside the factory rather than where the container sailed from. This guide explains the four kinds of rule, how to read the annex for your line, tolerance and accumulation, and works through a cotton T-shirt and a wooden sideboard into the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

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