Import/Export & Customs learning path: everything to study, topic by topic

Understanding how goods move across borders, the difference between imports and exports, balance of trade, and the basic mechanics of cross-border commerce

Identifying the roles of exporter, importer, customs broker, freight forwarder, carrier, and customs authority and how they interact in a shipment

Understanding tariffs, quotas, non-tariff barriers, trade liberalization, and protectionism and how trade policy shapes cross-border commerce

The role of the WTO, the World Customs Organization, multilateral agreements, and the harmonization frameworks that standardize global trade rules

The eleven Incoterms 2020 rules, the distinction between rules for any mode and rules for sea transport, and how each allocates obligations between buyer and seller

Identifying the precise point where risk and cost pass from seller to buyer under each Incoterm, including delivery point, insurance obligations, and cost allocation

Structuring the contract of sale, aligning Incoterms with payment terms and named places, and managing the interplay between the sales contract and the transport and insurance contracts

Applying the Harmonized System nomenclature, the General Rules of Interpretation, and section and chapter notes to assign the correct tariff code to a product

Determining the customs value of goods using the WTO transaction value method and the fallback methods, including additions, deductions, and related-party adjustments

Determining the economic origin of goods using wholly-obtained and substantial-transformation criteria, tariff-shift rules, and regional value content for preferential and non-preferential origin

Lawfully designing or describing products to achieve favorable classification, managing binding rulings, and building defensible classification positions

Preparing and lodging the customs declaration, supporting documentation, duty calculation, release and inspection processes, and post-clearance amendments

Using special procedures such as bonded warehouses, free trade zones, temporary admission, inward and outward processing, and transit to defer or relieve duties

Authorized Economic Operator programs, mutual recognition arrangements, trusted-trader benefits, and the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement measures that speed up clearance

Understanding export licensing, controlled-goods lists, end-use and end-user checks, and the frameworks that restrict the export of strategic and sensitive goods

Screening counterparties against sanctions and denied-party lists, managing embargoed destinations, handling true matches, and documenting screening decisions

Identifying dual-use items, applying control-list classification, catch-all controls, and managing technology transfer and intangible export risks

Building an internal compliance program with policies, risk assessment, training, auditing, recordkeeping, and voluntary self-disclosure to manage trade-compliance risk end to end

Reading tariff schedules, applying ad valorem and specific duties, computing duty liability, and understanding antidumping and countervailing duties

Claiming preferential tariff treatment under free trade agreements, meeting origin criteria, managing certificates and proofs of origin, and verifying cumulation rules

Designing lawful duty-minimization strategies across classification, valuation, origin, special regimes, and FTAs, and quantifying landed-cost savings at the portfolio level

Preparing commercial invoices, packing lists, certificates of origin, and the supporting documents that customs and counterparties require for clearance and payment

Understanding bills of lading, air waybills, multimodal transport documents, their negotiable and non-negotiable forms, and how they interact with payment and title transfer

Coordinating customs with freight forwarders and carriers, booking and routing, managing demurrage and detention, and resolving documentation discrepancies at the freight interface