To those who do any international trade in your business, does your company have an export compliance program? Many companies, who process exports and imports, need to have some kind of written plan in place for describing processes, procedures, policies and training for employees. Not only would it be necessary because it would connect employees to the message of institutionalized processes and safeguards of the organization, but because of the mitigating factors, since there are serious financial penalties for any organization that does not follow regulations, knowingly or unknowingly committed.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued Core Elements of an Effect Export Management and Compliance Program (EMCP) to simplify the process of creating a plan. Per BIS’s website, a good EMCP would answer why, what, when, where, how and by whom your export control policies and procedures are to be implemented. These 9 core elements answer these questions, and will be the foundation of your EMCP.
1. Management Commitment – First and for most, if the leaders are not on board, and then there would be no direction for the program. Senior management should be in charge of creating and writing compliance standards, committing organization resources to the program in order to enable the implementation of the program with responsible staff, ensuring that the export control laws and regulations are followed by all in the organization.
2. Continuous Risk Assessment of the Export Program – Frequent evaluation of how the export program is performing, from low to high risk would need to be implemented and part of your export plan. If you have a high volume of exports, like 100 shipments a week, you would need to evaluate more frequently than someone who has an export once a month.
3. Formal Written Export Management and Compliance Program – The program would need to be written and shared with all pertinent employees for an effective implementation of organization policies and procedures.
4. Ongoing Compliance Training Awareness – All employees who are stakeholders of the program will need to be trained on an ongoing basis at least once a year to review changes in regulations and policies. Organizational resources will need to be committed to compliance training.
5. Pre/Post Export Compliance Security and Screening – All parties in a transaction, all along the supply chain from the supplier to customer, the product to the employee will need to be screened as a measure of securing safeguards in the export life cycle. Decisions made about the product including its development, jurisdiction of classification, sales, servicing channels, licensing processing and post shipment activity would need to be evaluated and documented as being screened.
6. Adherence to Recordkeeping Regulatory Requirements – Keeping records, not only in paper but in electronic form as well, will need to be kept for at least 5 years. Emails, notes on correspondence with clients, and files of shipments will need to be archived and easily accessible.
7. Internal and External Compliance Monitoring and Periodic Audits – Audits are important in the export plan because it is a way to monitor if your plan is being properly implemented. Working with internal employees and third parties in the audit process will help determine your program’s effectiveness.
8. Maintaining a Program for Handing Compliance Problems – If it was suddenly determined that an error was made in a shipment, or if there was an issue with a supplier overseas suddenly being moved to a denied parties list, how you handle those issues would need to be addressed. Measures of reporting, preventing and detecting problems would need to be addressed in your plan.
9. Completing Appropriate Corrective Actions in Response to Export Violations – Any issue that goes beyond the limits of proper procedure and policy would need to be fixed. Reactions to problems and how future problems are fixed would need to be addressed.