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Customs & Compliance

Customs decides how fast your goods move, how much your buyer pays and whether a shipment is legal at all. This course explains the three pillars every declaration rests on (classification, value and origin), how to claim preferential duties, how to calculate a landed cost, and how to stay on the right side of export controls and sanctions.

What you will learn

  • Explain how export and import clearance work and who is responsible for each declaration
  • Calculate a customs value under the WTO Valuation Agreement, including additions such as assists, royalties and freight
  • Check whether a product qualifies for preferential origin and choose the right proof of origin (EUR.1, origin declaration, certificate)
  • Estimate import duties, VAT and the full landed cost for a buyer abroad
  • Screen buyers and products against export-control and sanctions risks
  • Use transit, bonded warehouses, temporary admission, inward processing and AEO status to save cash and time

Course contents

  1. Customs Clearance for Export and Import: How It Works — Customs clearance explained step by step: export and import declarations, HS classification, value, origin, controls, who files what and how to avoid delays.
  2. Customs Valuation: Transaction Value and What Is Added to It — How customs value is calculated under the WTO Valuation Agreement: transaction value, assists, royalties, freight (CIF vs FOB basis) and the six methods.
  3. Rules of Origin: Wholly Obtained, Processing and Cumulation — Rules of origin explained: wholly obtained goods, sufficient processing (tariff shift, value added), tolerance, cumulation and proofs such as the EUR.1.
  4. Free Trade Agreements and Preferential Duties: How to Benefit — How free trade agreements cut import duties: check the preferential rate, meet the origin rule and prove it. EU–Algeria, GAFTA and AfCFTA explained.
  5. Import Duties, VAT and Landed Cost: How to Calculate Them — How to calculate import duties, import VAT and the full landed cost for your buyer, with a worked example of Algerian tiles imported into Senegal, step by step.
  6. Export Controls, Dual-Use Goods and Sanctions Screening Explained — A practical guide to export controls, dual-use goods and sanctions screening: control lists, licences, UN, EU and OFAC lists, end-user checks and red flags.
  7. Special Customs Procedures: Transit, Bonded Warehouse, ATA Carnet — Special customs procedures explained: transit and TIR, bonded warehouses, temporary admission with ATA carnets and inward processing, with examples.
  8. Authorized Economic Operator (AEO): What It Is and Why It Helps — What AEO status is, the WCO SAFE Framework behind it, the criteria, benefits and audit, how mutual recognition works and whether it is worth it for an exporter.