The profession of a customs broker is extremely mysterious for most people who are not involved in the export or import of goods. The word “broker” is familiar in the format of a stock exchange employee who sells/buys shares and thereby makes money on the difference for their clients and, naturally, for themselves.
Actually, a broker is an intermediary. And customs broker is no exception. In this case, it is between an entrepreneur who is engaged in foreign economic activity and customs. We will talk about the specifics of the work in this article.
What do customs brokers do?
Mainly provides services for customs clearance of goods. In simple understandable language, these are intermediaries between customs and a client who wants to either receive cargo from abroad or send it there (importers, exporters), but does not know how to do it. And then he turns to the brokerage office.
Customs brokers advise the entrepreneur, in accordance with the law, customs clearance: what are the norms, what are the rules, what are the requirements. And they help with paperwork. The client provides a certain set of papers, and the broker begins to work with them in special programs, with electronic keys.
If, for example, you want to export timber, but don’t know how, the broker looks at the documents and checks for compliance with laws and regulations. If everything is satisfactory, he enters all the data into the program and sends it to customs. This is a statement in the prescribed form. It contains the name of the product, cost and everything you need.
When customs clears it, there will be a declaration. It has its own number, it is signed by the broker, and cleared by customs. And only with this document can the cargo leave the country.
In case of import, the customs broker studies who sent, who received, what goods, what vehicle, what currency, what documents were provided, how many payments were made, and more.
Why contact brokers? You can do everything yourself.
An ordinary person will not be able to figure all this out. To make the simplest declaration, you need to be very familiar with the legislation. There are a lot of legislative documents, and you need to navigate them.
Moreover, they are constantly changing. Each working day begins with the customs broker monitoring specialized resources to see what has come into force today, what will come into force tomorrow or next week. It is very important.
Fortunately, things are a little simpler now. There are special online resources, and the program is designed so as not to miss changes that have come into force or will soon become relevant. This should always be monitored. Legislation changes very quickly and frequently.
The amount of duties and payments by the client depends on how competently the broker determines the product code and cost. To clearly define the code, you need knowledge in all areas. Today a person wants to send timber, tomorrow – construction chemicals. It is impossible to know everything completely. And the broker has to navigate all this.
This is a difficult job and there is a lot of responsibility. The quality of the export-import operation depends on the work of the broker.
