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Parties, Roles & Instruments

Trade Compliance Officer

Also known as: Trade Compliance Manager, Import/Export Compliance

A trade compliance officer is the professional within a company responsible for ensuring that its import and export activities conform to all applicable customs, export-control, sanctions, and partner-agency laws. The role spans product classification and valuation, origin determination, licensing and denied-party screening, recordkeeping, and the design of internal controls that let the business move goods quickly while avoiding penalties, detentions, and reputational damage. As global trade rules grow more complex and enforcement more aggressive, the compliance function has become strategic, protecting the company's ability to trade and turning regulatory expertise into a competitive advantage.

The JFS takeLicensed customs broker · Filer 82G

The person who owns classification, valuation and recordkeeping inside an importer. Small importers rarely have one, and the function exists anyway — it is simply being done by whoever answers the email, usually without authority or time. Naming the owner is the cheapest compliance improvement most companies can make.

Where it matters for compliance

  • Reasonable care is judged partly on whether the importer had a system at all, not only on whether one entry was right.

Related terms

Denied Party ScreeningDenied party screening is the compliance practice of checking every party to a transaction — customers, suppliers, banks, freight forwarders, and end users — against government lists of individuals and entities that are sanctioned, debarred, or otherwise restricted from receiving exports.Importer of RecordThe importer of record is the party legally responsible for ensuring that imported goods are declared accurately, valued correctly, and admitted in compliance with all applicable laws, and for paying the duties, taxes, and fees that result.Customs BrokerA customs broker is a private individual or firm licensed by the national customs authority to act as an agent for importers in the clearance of goods, preparing and filing the entry documents, calculating and remitting duties and taxes, and ensuring that shipments comply with the full web of customs and partner-agency regulations.

Reviewed by a licensed customs broker. Definitions are general information, not legal or customs advice for a particular shipment. Duty rates, tariff programs and agency requirements change frequently.