BY MARK B. SOLOMON, SENIOR EDITOR
ELECTRONICS
verticalfocus
not playtime
anymore
It may sound like fun and games,
but managing a consumer electronics
supply chain is getting tougher by the
minute thanks to new compliance
and security restrictions.
IF YOUR JOB IS SELLING CONSUMER ELECTRONICS COMPONENTS OR FINISHED GOODS,
you are likely struggling to close deals amid the most difficult business environment in decades. But
take heart. You could be managing your company’s supply chain.
Consumer electronics exporters and importers—as well as those in other industries—face a year
of compliance and security changes that the International Compliance Professionals Association calls
the “most significant” since the 1993 passage of the Customs Modernization Act. At the same time,
compliance professionals are being forced to manage with scarcer resources from their cash-strapped
companies, knowing all the while that fines, penalties, shipment delays, or forfeitures that may have
been routinely dealt with in good economic times will not be blithely ignored in a downturn.
The industry’s challenges range from new data-filing requirements for ocean imports to physical
screening of air exports before they’re loaded into passenger planes. Exporters can expect tighter government scrutiny and stiffer fines for inaccurate or non-filed export declarations due to heightened
concerns over export shipments falling into the wrong hands, experts say. An array of agencies—
including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and even
the Federal Communications Commission—will also have their fingers in the enforcement pie in
2009, these experts say.
CPSC, for example, has the authority to place “manifest holds” on imports—including consumer
electronics—in order to satisfy its own compliance requirements, according to Amy Magnus, district
manager at A.N. Deringer Inc., a St. Albans, Vt.-based customs broker, freight forwarder, and third-party logistics service provider.
All of this comes at a time when the industry already faces critical time-to-market issues because
of its products’ high value and risk of obsolescence, and must also cope with precise and particular
tariff classifications. “A slight difference in classification can mean a huge difference in the duties that
are paid,” says Melissa Irmen, vice president, products and strategy for Integration Point Inc., a
