Gabriele Henderson

I do not see benefits in this large number of trade barriers and I am scared thinking about the list of restrictions I am going to deal with wile exporting from EU to the USA. I am a small manufacturer from South Africa and it is almost impossible to build strong B2B with some American partners because of these endless lists of tariffs I have to pay while shipping my products abroad. I agree with all the international economists – trade barriers influence badly both SMEs and the country’s economy in general. One main reason for this consensus is that trade barriers decrease overall efficiency and productivity within economies that are affected by them. This can be explained by the theory of comparative advantage. In theory, trade is free, and involves the removal of all such barriers, except those considered necessary for health or national security. In practice, however, even those countries promoting free trade heavily subsidize certain industries, such as agriculture and steel. At the same time, some trade barriers might be in place within a free trade agreement to protect consumers from inferior, harmful, or dangerous products. In that case, they may not be as harmful to a country’s economy but absolutely destroy the SMEs potential. So, this is a double-edged sword."

In the age of digital technologies, there are a lot of tools which will help you build up an appropriate Commercial Invoice without any additional investments (if you are in your first international business transaction). I use commercial invoiceform.org. This international website will help you fill in all the necessary details which are a must in every CI. While preparing my first international trade, I made a lot of mistakes because there was no one to guide me. Everything seemed to be a mess - a lot of numbers, dates, and calculations. I was not allowed to pass the customs because of mistakes in my Commercial Invoice. This caused me a lot of troubles and financial losses (all the peaches I wanted to export transformed into juice). I was forced to get back to my office and prepare the Invoice appropriately. Do not repeat my mistake, inform yourself before any kind of international business transaction, consult trade specialists and prepare the Invoice in the best way you can.