Export Compliance Program Development
Xport Consultants provides the building blocks that allow you to meet your export compliance responsibilities and avoid the consequences of non-compliance.
Our company is built around developing export compliance programs that are cost effective, efficient and easy to implement. We help our clients meet their export obligations so they can focus on business without interruption or loss of export privileges. We work on-site with your personnel — regardless of location — to customize your export compliance program; manual; training; forms and checklists, and audits.
The first step in your export compliance program development is to understand your responsibilities as defined by the Department of State (DoS) and the Department of Commerce (DoC) related to export controls. Government regulations provide guidelines that exporters, manufacturers, distributors, re-sellers, and integrators have a comprehensive export compliance program.
Xport Consultants has consolidated these guidelines into three building blocks:
1. Customized Export Compliance Manual
Our Export Compliance Manual is built for you — at your company’s location by one of our Senior Consultants and is customized to your organization and specific export needs dependant upon your products, services and/or technology. Your customized Export Compliance Manual acts as the road map for your export compliance program. It can help you ensure that your company is operating under the most current and appropriate government agency regulations, and provides personnel with forms, check lists and procedures for an effective export compliance program. It also serves as a guidepost for audits and assessments. Our customized export compliance manuals take confusing and complex U.S. government agency laws and regulations by transforming them into in plain and easy-to-understand “English.”
The Export Compliance Manual is a reference document for all personnel in your export workflow and meets the requirements of the EAR and the ITAR pertinent to your Export Compliance Program. Compliance elements covered include, but are not limited to:
- Your company's export compliance organization
- Corporate commitment and policy statements
- Governing agency determination
- Item classifications
- Licensing requirements
- License exceptions/exemptions
- Technology Control Plan
- Violations and related penalties
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Departmental Roles and Responsibilities
- And much, much more
Our customized Export Compliance Manual includes via Appendix your company’s personnel responsibilities by department, associated tasks and required documentation customized to your company using flow charts, written procedures or bulleted steps to ensure overall export compliance. This will include:
- Empowered Official
- Export Manager/Officer/Administrator
- Sales/Inside Sales/Program Management
- Customer Service/Contracts
- Engineering/Manufacturing Engineering/Document Control
- Purchasing/Materials Management
- Information Technology
- Human Resources
- Reception
- Operations/Production Control/Manufacturing/Quality Control
- Material Handling/Receiving
- Logistics/Shipping
Procedures, Forms and Check Lists
We work on your site with your personnel reviewing all of the internal export compliance procedures to determine both what the procedures are and what your personnel actually do to comply with the EAR and the ITAR. We will then either:
New Procedures:
Develop and compose your formal departmental procedures, work instructions, associated forms, and/or develop export compliance check lists based on your defined procedure format and company infrastructure; focusing on export compliance tasks, roles and responsibilities that will ensure export compliance for your company.
Existing Procedures:
Provide written recommendations on existing procedures to include export compliance tasks, based on your defined department roles and responsibilities, in your procedure format and aligned with your company infrastructure that will ensure export compliance for your company.
Should an export violation occur and your company is contacted by a U.S. government agency, the first thing they will review is your company's Export Compliance Manual. Will you be ready to provide this manual?
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2. Training
Xport Consultants develops flexible and customized training packages. Our years of industry and compliance experience and knowledge combined with the flexibility to meet your individual compliance training needs offers a unique perspective. We offer a simplified “cradle to grave” outline of the export compliance program as defined by the appropriate governing agency and any company specific topics you deem critical for your organization. Xport Consultants develops customized training packages based on your company’s organization; responsibilities by department, associated tasks and required documentation to ensure overall export compliance understanding of laws and regulations affecting your company. Specific training modules tailored to your company can include:
- EAR Compliance Basics
- ITAR Compliance Basics
- Item Classification and Tagging– EAR and ITAR
- Export Roles and Responsibilities
- Red Flag Indicators
- Export Shipping Requirements
Ongoing export compliance training and awareness is strongly encouraged by both the Department of State and the Department of Commerce, topics critical to these U.S. government agencies are:
- Jurisdictional Authority - EAR or ITAR
- Item Classification and Tagging - CCL or USML
- Export Terminology and Acronyms
- Accountability, Management Chain and Organizational Structure
- Agency Registration – DoC, DoS or both
- Licensing and License Exceptions/Exemptions
- Technical Data Controls
- Reporting/Recordkeeping
- Points of Contact
- Recurring Audits
- Education, training and guidance for all employees involved in exports
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3. Audits and Assessments
Our objective when conducting export compliance audits and assessments includes understanding the strength and efficiency of our client’s compliance procedures, and proposing recommendations that are not only based on our knowledge of the regulations, but also our strong corporate background. Our hands-on export compliance approach — when combined with our experience and regulatory knowledge — provides us with a unique perspective to ensure the proper balance between a company’s need to maintain its day-to-day business while instituting and maintaining an export compliance program. Our assessments/audits include on-site evaluations and a personalized written summation presented to our client at the completion of the audit/assessment. Xport Consultants not only provides a thorough assessment of a client's export compliance program as well as a personalized written summary of our recommendations, but we can also assist clients in the implementation of the proposed recommendations.
The export compliance audit and assessment is utilized to determine:
Whether your export compliance program adequately protects your company against the transfer of export-controlled items and technical information to countries and entities of concern.
To ensure internal processes, procedures and associated forms adequately capture and document matters of export compliance.
To protect your company from export violations which may result in fines, penalties or debarment.
To protect the integrity of your company’s export compliance program by verifying that operational procedures within the company reflect the company’s written compliance procedures and that the procedures are consistent with government regulations
To identify and resolve inconsistencies between written and operational procedures, identify export process gaps and provide recommendations for corrective action
Utilizing Xport Consultants for an Audit/Assessment exhibits to U.S. government agencies that your company is committed to abiding by export laws and regulations, as well as providing an impartial and objective review of your company's export compliance program and recordkeeping practices.
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Take the next step now towards export compliance.
