Trade Consulting

The clause determines who organises and pays for transport, insurance and customs clearance — and from which point you bear the risk. In practice, a wrongly chosen clause leads to freight being paid twice, goods travelling uninsured, or you being unexpectedly responsible for import in the destination country. We review your quotes and contracts clause by clause and run the scenarios through the landed-cost calculation — then you see in francs what the right choice is worth.

The customs declaration itself is filed by the customs declarant or freight forwarder through the FOCBS systems — this requires dedicated declaration infrastructure and, as a rule, a ZAZ account. Our role is the stage before and after: we cleanly prepare classification, proofs of origin and documents, brief the declarant, coordinate the handling and check the assessment afterwards. For sensitive classifications we obtain a binding customs tariff ruling from the FOCBS — this gives you legal certainty before the goods are on their way.

No — and we say so openly: Incoterms is a registered trademark of the ICC, and official ICC training may only be delivered by licensed trainers. Our courses do not carry an ICC label. They are practice-oriented in-house formats built around your own product range and your real supply relationships — with the cases that actually occur in your day-to-day work. For anyone who needs an official certificate, we are happy to point you in the right direction.

Preference proofs such as EUR.1, origin declarations or REX are verified regularly — sometimes years after delivery. If origin cannot then be substantiated, customs back-claims and a strained customer relationship in the destination country loom. That is why every use of preference needs a sound basis: calculation of the origin rules, up-to-date supplier declarations, orderly filing. That is exactly what we check in the customs compliance check — before the authorities do.

More often than many think: sanctions and dual-use rules apply regardless of company size, and breaches carry penalties. We screen products against the goods lists, business partners against the sanctions lists and check the destination countries — and build you a lean internal review process that fits into your ordering workflow instead of slowing it down. Clearly delineated: licences are granted solely by SECO, and in sensitive cases we bring in specialised lawyers.

Payment processing is and remains banking business — we do not take that on. What we do take on: the choice of the appropriate safeguard for each transaction — from advance payment through documentary collection to letter of credit and bank guarantee — the structuring of the letter-of-credit terms together with your bank, and the pre-checking of documents before submission. Because it is on the documentary strictness of a letter of credit that SMEs regularly come unstuck — not on the bank.

Yes, that is exactly what import handling as a service is for: we compare the quotes including landed cost, clarify the Incoterm, assemble the document set, select and brief the freight forwarder, coordinate clearance and track the shipment through to goods receipt. At every stage you see what is happening and why — and by the second import your team already handles much of it itself. That is precisely how it is meant to be.

When your foreign trade is well-oiled: your own customs expertise in-house, cleanly documented classifications, applied preferences and a freight-forwarder set-up that matches your volumes. In that case we honestly confirm this to you after a brief stocktake — and you invest your consulting budget where it has more impact. We remain available on a selective basis, for instance when a new country, a new product or a subsequent audit comes up.