Compliance & Audit Services

Our compliance and audit services are aimed at helping your company achieve greater compliance; prepare for an audit; minimize potential penalty liability and government intrusion; and in the process discover possible duty savings opportunities. ClearPoint International is focused on helping you minimize legal liability and maximize efficiencies in the movement of your company’s freight.

The consulting services offered by ClearPoint International help importers save money by working with them to implement comprehensive duty savings strategies and enhance their organizations’ operating efficiencies. Our team can represent an importer’s interest before the U.S. Customs Service and assist companies in responding to governmental inquiries. To help companies save money, we identify available U.S. trade programs to minimize customs duty costs (or avoid them entirely). The issues we address include tariff classification, merchandise valuation (including customs transfer pricing), country-of-origin determinations and markings, and supply chain management among others.

As of October 1, 2001, all new importer assessments will be conducted under the Focus Assessment (“FA”) methodology. This new program will eliminate the Compliance Assessment (“CA”) methodology, in which assessment of the effectiveness of internal controls was based on the results of transaction tests. In contrast, the FA will examine a company's Customs internal controls up-front, using traditional audit methods to evaluate the existence and effectiveness of the controls and ensure that they are “woven into the fabric” of the company's operations. The FA will only use extensive transaction testing on those areas where weak controls indicate a significant risk of non-compliance. From Customs' viewpoint, a company's internal controls start with management commitment as evidenced by clearly defined policies and procedures and a system to monitor the effectiveness of compliance controls.

Clearly documented procedures have proven to heighten customs compliance and expedite Customs Compliance Assessments; all importers should develop a Customs Compliance Process Manual linking defined procedures interdepartmentally and incorporating existing compliance guides and policy statements. Customs compliance personnel should schedule quarterly reviews and audits of all customs compliance-related areas. As needed, monthly meetings should be held to discuss current industry issues and evaluate the importer’s Customs processes.

Home | Back | Top