数十年来，外包服务一直是全球贸易格局的重要组成部分。近年来，越来越多的企业赋予了这一战略举措全新的意义。

随着全球地缘政治局势渐趋紧张，关税争端和贸易保护主义在世界范围内日渐蔓延，许多跨国企业在国际供应链方面面临着前所未有的挑战。持续增加的关税成本引起了企业管理层的重视，这使得负责国际贸易与海关事务的管理团队（“关务团队”）越发感到压力。如何分析国际贸易形势和政策，控制企业运营成本，并为企业创造更高价值——这些成为了关务团队的当务之急。

新形势下的国际贸易管理工作要求企业储备大量国际性人才与建立完善的信息技术基础配套设施。为确保相关信息技术基础的建设能对法律法规、人员、操作流程的变化做出及时响应，企业需要持续性地投入大量资源和精力。

关务团队如何抽出充足时间来满足上述工作要求？

把企业贸易合规操作外包给值得信赖的合作伙伴，可将关务团队从繁重的日常任务中解绑，使其能集中精力处理更高附加值的事宜——换言之，选择正确的解决方案与合作伙伴是成功的关键因素。

对许多企业而言，外包服务是可行的解决方案。

个性化的外包服务将全面涵盖企业日常业务所涉及的贸易合规操作，关务团队因此得以专注于更宏观、更高价值的工作领域。同时，外包服务也将优化企业内部的关务团队的工作环境，使其有更多机会接触和完成更具挑战性、更多样化、更高附加值的任务，以获得更多战略合作伙伴的认可。

实际上，从人员配置与权限划分的角度出发，各行业都倾向于将国际贸易的运营活动与管控活动明确区分，将日常管理活动与宏观层面的监督与决策明确区分。如运用得当，该举措一方面将在贸易合规部门内部形成制衡机制，另一方面明确的分工将为关务团队排除干扰，使其能将更多的时间与精力投入到能为企业创造更高价值的工作领域。

将国际贸易日常运营的相关工作外包给胜任且值得信赖的服务商，同时保留公司内部的监督与决策职能——在贸易合规领域，这一模式无疑是一种趋势，一种进步，可为企业注入新的动力。

哪些国际贸易运营工作适合外包？

国际贸易日常运营的很多工作往往具有非决策性、工作量大、劳动密集或依赖系统等特质；具备这些特质的工作非常适合利用外包服务。例如：

海关商品归类

世界各地的进出口商品都必须归类至正确的商品编码，且每种产品可能在不同的国家地区适用不同的规定。因此，许多进出口企业的关务团队需要耗费大量精力与资源为其每项进出口货物确定在不同国家地区的正确商品编码，这当中包含大量重复的商品归类工作。

自由贸易协定优惠措施的适用

近年来，不同国家地区之间缔结自由贸易协定的数量越来越多，例如中国-东盟自由贸易协定、日本-欧盟自由贸易协定等。企业利用好这些自由贸易协定将可以大大降低企业进口关税成本；因此，在搭建整体供应链时，企业应充分考虑自由贸易协定的影响。然而，企业需要进行大量的工作以证明进出口货物符合自由贸易协定的相关规则或具体规定。具体而言，企业需要针对各项进口货物向其供应商获取原产地证明及相关信息，以支持原产地申报——这无疑是一项繁琐而又细致的工作。此外，随着自由贸易协定和相关规定实施进程的演变，企业还需要每年对照各项产品的物料清单以及各相关自由贸易协定的规定重新进行专业判断。

进口申报监督与审核

作为一项行之有效的风险管理措施，许多企业会对其报关行提交的进口报关单进行审核，以确认报关信息的准确性与合规性。这项管理措施的工作量大小无疑与进口规模直接相关。进口规模较大的企业应运用恰当的信息技术手段与流程来完成这项工作。

出口管制合规

包括中国、美国和欧盟在内的多个国家/地区都向特定地区、企业和个人的出口行为实施管制。有鉴于此，企业关务团队需要通过开发相关系统、完善管控流程的方式以筛查出口贸易伙伴，并评估、解决出口管制的相关合规问题。

上述工作对于提高贸易合规性、控制运营成本来说至关重要；而做好这些工作往往需要企业在全球网络中的各个区域配备不同的专业技能人才与不同的信息系统，以在日复一日、年复一年的业务操作中确保每笔交易可见、可管、可控。显然，将上述工作中那些重复性、劳动密集的部分外包出去，这可以在很大程度上优化企业在全球范围内的贸易合规工作。

外包服务将如何改变企业的未来？

试想一下，如果企业关务团队能够将其目前在日常运营活动中耗费的时间与精力投入到更具战略指导性的工作上，他们可以达成怎样的目标、取得怎样的成效？举例来说，通过利用外包服务，关务团队可以实现：

• 运用他们在关税、自由贸易协定、原产地规则方面的专业知识以提出建议，为企业选择在最具竞争力的国家/地区设立工厂、采购点和国际分销中心。
• 及时获取新政信息并向相关政府部门提交有关进出口税收减免的申请，以进一步优化企业供应链。
• 与其政府关系团队合作，识别对企业有重大影响的法律、法规或政策草案，并针对这些草案及其潜在影响制定应对策略以采取必要行动。
• 与其他业务部门建立更广泛的联系以明确共同的战略目标，并合力为实现目标做出贡献。

最后，值得关注的是，关务团队的重塑将有效提升其在企业管理层与其他职能部门心中的价值。例如，关务团队可通过与产品设计和采购团队合作，运用专业知识提出产品设计建议以尽可能降低关税成本。同样地，关务团队可以从进出口贸易的角度对企业未来的促销活动计划进行评估，确保企业有充足的资源应对激增的产品需求以避免交期延误。

从长远来说，一个优秀的外包服务商是怎样的？

毋庸置疑的是，只有在管理得当的情况下，外包服务才能显著提高关务团队的工作绩效。由于关务团队仍需要对相关工作的时效性、准确性及完整性承担最终责任，只有提供卓越服务的外包服务商才能赢得关务团队的信赖。

关务团队负责人不愿采用外包服务的常见原因是，企业现有的操作流程不够标准化，他们往往认为只有足够标准化的内部操作流程才能进行外包。毋庸讳言，与较“传统”的外包服务商合作确实如此。而作为一个“对”的外包服务商，其应具备专业化工具与国际贸易专业知识，通过以行业领先的标准为企业提供外包服务，从而高效地推动企业完成内部操作流程的标准化。

选择“对”的外包服务商需要考虑以下方面：

• 外包服务商是否具备相应的技能、工具、自动化手段和信息系统，以满足提供全球范围内贸易合规服务的需求，实现行业领先的有效性、准确性和高效性。
• 外包服务商是否了解企业管理层最为关注的国际贸易问题？能否提供可视化的实时分析，以帮助关务团队在回答管理层疑问的基础上，更前瞻性地回应管理层的关注与诉求？
• 外包服务商是否遵循以客户为中心的服务理念，以满足企业不断变化的合规需求。例如，是否可以及时调整其工作方法以适应企业的各种系统、操作流程与数据格式，并根据企业实际需求调整其在各项服务中所配置的资源？
• 外包服务商能否提供实时的指标及数据，以显示企业日常操作中的贸易合规事宜均得到了妥善管理，使得关务团队可以集中精力处理附加值更高的重要事项。

外包服务的总体优势

将国际贸易的日常运营工作外包给专业机构不仅可以有效降低成本、提高效率，更重要的是可以提高关务团队日常工作的质量。可能被忽视掉的是，业务外包可以为关务团队创造一份“内心的平静”：将国际贸易日常运营的相关工作交给外包服务商处理，关务团队得以从繁琐的操作或从“救火式”的事务中“解放”出来。

得益于外包服务商一流的内部操作流程、最新的技术，以及可适应企业规模而灵活配置的全球化专业人才网络，关务团队可以投入全部的时间与精力专注于实质性的问题，与业务部门更紧密配合以为企业创造更高价值，并在组织中提升关务团队的影响力。

值得注意的是，国际贸易格局的变化以及虚拟办公的发展趋势，为跨国企业提供了重新审视其国际贸易管理模式的绝佳机会。对国际贸易管理来说，我们相信外包服务即将成为新常态下不可或缺的一部分。

How outsourcing key trade and customs activities can help elevate the global trade function

Outsourcing has been part of the global trade landscape for decades, but recent times have many companies giving this strategy a fresh look.

As geopolitical tensions, tariff wars and protectionist policies spread across the world map. Many global trade functions struggle to keep up with the increasingly complex operational tasks required to keep international supply chains flowing. As soaring tariff costs catch the eyes of company leaders, trade executives mired in the daily grind increasingly find themselves stressed and pressed to meet leadership requests for impact analyses and fresh ideas to curb costs and add value to the organization.

Further, managing operational trade tasks requires a significant global staffing and technology infrastructure. Feeding this infrastructure demands constant attention and significant resources to ensure up-to-the-minute responsiveness to regulatory, personnel and process changes.

Where does today’s trade executive find the time to meet all these demands?

Outsourcing task-based trade compliance activities to a trusted partner can free-up overburdened trade executives and team members to add strategic value higher up the value chain – picking the right solution, and the right partner, is key to success.

For many organizations, outsourcing can provide an answer.

Outsourcing aspects of the high-touch transactional work that characterizes much of modern trade operations can redirect the focus of global trade executives to the big-picture where they can add greater value to the organization. This approach also offers opportunity for a more satisfying environment for in-house trade and customs teams more broadly, offering work that delivers more challenge, more variety and more intellectual reward, as well as more opportunities to be recognized as valued strategic partners across the business.

In fact, there is a growing trend across industries to separate trade operations from trade governance — to separate daily management of activity from oversight and strategy — in terms of both personnel and mandate. When done right, this not only fosters a checks-and-balance environment within the trade compliance function. It also offers a new avenue for global trade executives to move noise out of the system so they can devote more time and energy to areas that create value for the company.

Outsourcing elements of the trade operations function to a qualified and trusted provider, while retaining oversight and decision making within the company, is an evolution of this trend, and can offer dynamic results in several core compliance areas.

Which trade tasks are ripe for outsourcing?

Much of the day-to-day work of trade functions is exactly the sort of high-volume, labor or technology-intensive, non-strategic tasks that lends itself well to an outsourced service environment. For example:

Tariff classification

Everything that's imported and exported all over the world needs to be correctly classified under a tariff code. Different guidelines apply for each product, so many trade teams spend significant time, and resources, figuring out the right classification for each part number and SKU crossing a border, often multiple times as classifications are unique for each country.

Accessing free trade agreements

Proliferating trade agreements, such as those between China and ASEAN, Europe and Japan, are a boon for international companies because they limit import duty costs and can lead to significant savings. Whole supply chains can be developed around free trade agreements as a result. But a lot of work is needed to show individual products qualify under each agreement. Specifically, labor-intensive processes often require larger companies go to their suppliers for product-by-product origin information to support their origin declarations, which typically must be calculated each year based on specific bills of materials for each product and each free trade agreement used.

Import declaration monitoring and review

As a leading practice, many companies verify the accuracy and compliance of their import declarations submitted by their customs brokers. Even for high-volume importers, this monitoring effort can be done efficiently with the right technology tools and processes.

Resolving export sanction hits

Several jurisdictions, including China, the US and European Union, impose various sanctions and restrictions on exports to certain locations and individuals, so trade teams need to develop systems, controls and processes to screen parties to export transactions, and to evaluate and resolve system hits.

This work is hugely important to enhance compliance and contain costs, but it requires a large network of people in different places with different technical skills as well as different systems to give them the visibility needed to manage each transaction, day after day and year after year. Outsourcing the most labor-intensive portions of this function can significantly streamline trade compliance activities across the globe.

What could the future look like with outsourcing?

Imagine what global trade teams could accomplish if they could devote the time and energy currently spent on manual, day-to-day tasks to the more strategic work that is increasingly expected of them. For example, with the help of outsourcing, trade teams can:

• Apply their knowledge of tariffs, trade agreements and rules of origin to advise on the most competitive jurisdictions for locating plants, sourcing inputs and setting up international sales and distribution functions.
• Optimize the business’s supply chain by keeping ahead of proposed new tariffs and preparing detailed government submissions to request and support tariff exclusions for their goods.
• Work with the business’s government relations team to identify proposed or pending legislation that could affect the business, and to develop mitigation strategies for influencing policies.
• Network more extensively with other business units to keep in tune with new strategies and contribute to a multifunctional approach to business planning.

This final point highlights how a refocused internal trade team can rise in value in the eyes of leadership and other functions. For example, by working together with product designers and procurement teams, global trade professionals can help their companies design their products to attract to lowest tariffs possible. Similarly, they can monitor plans for upcoming local sales incentives and ensure the right resources are in place to manage surges in demand and get shipments processed without delay.

What makes a good long-term outsourcing partner?

Of course, elevating the trade function’s work can only succeed if the company’s outsourced activities are well managed. Trade teams will remain ultimately responsible for the efficiency, accuracy and completeness of this work, so they need a high degree of confidence in the managed services provider they partner with.

A common reason that global trade executives may not want to outsource is a lack of standardization in their current practices combined with a belief that only well-defined processes should be handed off. This may be true when working with “old school” outsourcing providers. However, the right provider will have tools and trade process expertise to efficiently transform and standardize processes to industry leading standards.

Some questions to think about when choosing the right partner are:

• Does the provider have the tools, automation and skill sets needed to address the relevant trade regulations globally and drive industry-leading accuracy and efficiency?
• Does the provider have a strong grasp of the global trade issues that are important to C-suite executives? Can the provider deliver the real-time visibility and analytics needed to help trade teams not only answer but also anticipate questions from senior leadership?
• Will the provider take a customer-centric approach to your changing compliance needs, for example, by tailoring their approach to suit your own various systems, approaches and data formats, and by adjusting the resources devoted to your activities as needed?
• Will the provider make available real-time metrics and other data that will give you comfort that your company’s trade compliance is being properly handled?

The long and short of it

Companies that take an outsourcing approach to trade compliance services stand to reduce cost and increase efficiency while elevating accuracy and quality. But peace of mind is perhaps one of the most under-appreciated benefits for global trade executives.

With everyday transactional activities in a trusted provider’s hands, trade teams can avoid spending time fighting fires. Instead, trade executives can gain time and ability to focus on more substantive issues, partner with the business, drive better results and boost the trade function’s brand across the organization, while taking advantage of best-in-class processes, the latest technology, and a global network of professionals that be scaled up and down as needs evolve.

If nothing else, changes in the global trade landscape and the trend toward virtual work environments present the perfect opportunity for multinationals to rethink how they manage their global trade operations. When it comes to managing trade, we believe that outsourcing is poised to become a key component of the new normal.

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