TABLE OF CONTENTS Conducting business on a global basis has become an industrial norm. Businesses in virtually every industry find that they are now part of extended enterprises with trading partners around the world. Companies of all sizes can discover that some part of their supply chain contains a manufacturer in a distant land. In this new and ever-expanding environment, international procurement has become a major challenge, and success requires a number of skills that are not otherwise required for typical domestic procurement. Demand for top, knowledgeable, and experienced supply chain planning and import personnel is on the rise to meet these challenges.
As a company contemplates procuring product domestically or globally, many critical elements must be considered while analyzing cost, time, quality, service, and liability factors. With the growing emphasis being placed on supply chain management and the drive for optimization of process steps across an end-to-end value chain, purchasing strategically and globally has taken center stage and has become the popular means for obtaining product. If this is the chosen path taken for a corporation, the tragic events of 9/11 created a vast array of new and essential factors that must be considered, discussed, and instituted to procure foreign product effectively.
The volume of imports into the U.S. continues to be on the rise and has surpassed the number of exports out of the U.S. Among other factors, this condition brings huge, yearly increased revenues from duties, taxes, and fees for...
