U.S. authorities seized more than 200,000 toy dolls from China at several ports of entry this year due to high concentrations of phthalates, a group of banned chemical compounds considered dangerous to children.

Amber Road would like to thank all of those who attended American Shipper’s “A Place at the Table - Bringing the Export Team into Strategic Discussions” webinar. The attendees asked some great questions, but unfortunately, we ran out of time and were unable to answer all of them. The presenters were kind enough to provide us with written responses to those questions. Here are a few:

• What is the path or steps needed for making export screening a part of the business process? How do you get started?
  Very simply, the first step is making executives aware that screening is a required business process in order to comply with U.S. export regulations. Communication is key. There are different kinds of screening, so my response will focus on restricted party screening. First, form a team to identify all of the places that party information becomes available to the company and will need to be screened. Next, determine your risk profile for screening parties for each area (i.e. vendor set up, order entry, web download, visitors etc.) and the appropriate frequency of screening. This information will then help you identify solutions available that meet your criteria.

As federal defense contracts continue to be cut, the state of Virginia has launched a $2 million campaign called “Going Global” to help its numerous defense-related contractors capture international export opportunities.

The program started just a month ago, but already over 80 defense contractors have committed to taking their products and services abroad.

As you are well aware, China has its own set of complex trade regulations. Companies are turning to China Trade Management (CTM) software solutions to help them take advantage of the Processing Trade program. With the possibility of reducing product cost by 25% or more, they can’t afford not to!

Isn’t it time you started taking advantage of these savings as well? Join Amber Road for a complimentary webinar, Navigating the Processing Trade Program with China Trade Management, which broadcasts live on Thursday, December 12 at 11:30am EST. During this webinar, we will address:

• The ins and outs of China’s Processing Trade program
• How China Trade Management solutions work
• How to utilize a CTM solution to significantly reduce duties for your company
• How your company can take advantage of the Processing Trade program
• How CTM solutions fit into the overall GTM landscape

Supply chains are by their very nature connected, information-dependent, and undergoing constant change. Most senior supply chain leaders have become accustomed to developing and deploying operational strategies on the back of software applications that are generally legacy systems underpinning specialty bolt-on tools. The result is sometimes clunky and rarely flexible in the face of changing business conditions. In “Supply Chain and the Future of Applications” SCM World reports on how the idea of “cloud” based software promises to change this.

Supply chain leaders depend on a whole range of software applications to manage their operations and to support initiatives for new growth. Many of these systems have taken years and cost many millions of dollars to install and use. Changes in information technology, particularly cloud computing, are likely to have a significant impact on the way these systems are developed and deployed going forward. According to the report, this new model already appears ready to apply to supply chains and is bringing new considerations to the table both in terms of technology and use cases.

Surprisingly, while overall international freight forwarding grew by 3.2% to $63.2 billion in 2012, ocean freight saw large growth (11.5%) while air freight experienced significant decline (4.2%). This disparity can largely be attributed to companies increasing visibility into their supply chain and no longer needing to rely on air transport, which was traditionally the more reliable yet costly method.

Mastering global transportation management is a feat for even the most sophisticated shipper. With extensive growth in today’s global supply chain, shippers don’t just manage the movement of goods from one country into another – rather they manage freight flows across multiple countries, with sourcing markets quickly evolving into consumer markets.

American Shipper, in partnership with the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), surveyed more than 350 shippers and third party logistics providers about their global transportation management technology, global footprint, and data quality.

The global trade world has been buzzing about Amber Road’s acquisition of Shanghai-based EasyCargo for about a month now, since it introduces robust China Trade Management functionality into an already strong compliance offering. Gartner offered its “First Take” on the acquisition and what this move means for Amber Road customers and the global trade management industry as a whole:

“(Processing Trade) is similar to other duty programs, like the U.S. foreign trade zones program, but its unique requirements make it difficult for software vendors to construct one application to handle all duty programs. Until now, Amber Road has only been capable of supporting clients importing into and exporting out of China, and not to manage the in-country processing and manufacturing of goods. Amber Road customers can now rely on a single cloud-based provider for both import/export compliance and support for Chinese customs processing under the Processing Trade regime.”

The owner of two New Jersey defense contracting businesses was arraigned this week for allegedly transmitting military blueprints to India without a license, a major violation of U.S. export laws.

Let's be honest, our blog can't cover it all - so we love to make recommendations for other great global trade bloggers. One of Amber Road's favorite industry blogs is Beyond Supply Chain, written and maintained by SCM World's Kevin O'Marah.