Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have to make sure they know what they’re doing where overseas shipping is concerned, or they could find themselves out of pocket before they know it.
You need to ensure that you’ve familiarised yourself with the rules, regulations and risks before embarking on international exportation of goods.
Bear in mind that not all of your products may be suitable for international shipping and some of your goods may simply be too expensive to send out to other countries. Try and focus on smaller items that are easy to ship in order to keep costs to a minimum.
Decide in advance what countries you’re happy to ship to and once you’ve reached that decision, do some research to find out if there are any country-specific regulations you need to bear in mind where shipping is concerned.
For example, if you want to ship some antiques from Europe to Australia, you’ll find that antique shipments are actually restricted and can only be completed with an International Special Commodities contract.
Or if you want to post e-cigarettes to Bahrain, you’ll find that the Ministry of Health has banned this, as well as all the component parts that come with such products.
As you can see, it’s perhaps not as straightforward sending items overseas as you might have originally thought, but if you’re prepared and do your research properly you should have no nasty surprises. Get in touch with us here at Unipac Shipping if you need any more help and advice moving forward.
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