Understanding Customs Regulations

Customs delays are rarely about the cargo itself — they're almost always about paperwork that's incomplete, inconsistent, or doesn't match what's actually in the container. Understanding what customs officials are actually checking for makes it much easier to avoid the common holds.

The core document set doesn't change much shipment to shipment: a Commercial Invoice (the legal record of the sale, including accurate value), a Packing List (what's actually in each package, matched to the invoice), a Bill of Lading or Airway Bill (the transport contract), and — depending on the destination country and product — a Certificate of Origin.

Consistency across documents matters more than perfection on any single one. The single most common cause of a customs hold we see is a mismatch: the weight on the packing list doesn't match the bill of lading, or the declared value on the invoice doesn't match what's stated elsewhere. Customs systems flag inconsistency automatically, before a human ever looks at the shipment.

Harmonized System (HS) codes need to be specific, not approximate. Using a general or slightly-wrong HS code is a common shortcut that frequently backfires — it can trigger a manual review that a correctly-coded shipment would have cleared automatically, and in some cases results in incorrect duty assessment that has to be corrected after the fact.

Incoterms determine who's responsible for what — and for filing what. Whether you're shipping under FOB, EXW, CIF, or DDP changes who's responsible for export/import documentation and duty payment at each stage. Choosing the wrong Incoterm for your situation is a common source of confusion and delay, not just a pricing detail.

Our customs team handles filing and compliance directly for shipments moving through Sub Delivery, but the documents above are worth understanding even if someone else is filing them for you — you'll be the first one asked if something doesn't match.