• The majority of survey respondents export from North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Almost 40 percent export from South/Central America and the Caribbean, and just 33 percent export from the Middle East and Africa.
• Seventy-three percent of respondents continue to manage trade compliance centrally from the United States (U.S.) and only 27 percent manage trade compliance within each region. This was the same as 2010.
• Companies need to be prepared for a potential increase in U.S. exports, should export control reform ("ECR") be successful.
• Automation is an essential tool in reducing cost and mitigating regulatory threats to your supply chain. Automation frees up compliance resources allowing them to focus on complex tasks such as corporate strategy, training and audit. And automation is needed to ensure scalable daily execution at an acceptable cost.
• Seventy-three percent of respondents stated they still had completely manual or semi-automated processes for preparing export documentation.
• Surprisingly, despite the risk of fines/penalties roughly 20 percent of respondents export without screening for restricted/denied parties and embargoed countries.

Supporting Quotes:

• "We're finding over and over again that GTM systems are a strategic risk mitigation tool and the majority of exporters see them as an essential component of their global strategy", according to Beth Peterson, president, BPE."
• "This report is a must read for organizations and logistics professionals looking to align their export practices with best-in-class operations and better understand the importance of GTM on your company's profitability and to stay current with increasing shifts in regulations," said Alan Gold, vice president of marketing and business development for Kewill Inc.
• "Enterprises and individuals should prepare for unannounced shifts in enforcement emphasis and ever-tightening regulations. Essentially, the heat can be turned up or down at will by executive fiat (for example, through the granting of "humanitarian exemptions"), without legislative or judicial input, as a way of fine-tuning government pressure on a foreign entity. Additionally, any act of terrorism or instability has the potential to elevate the criticality or magnitude of certain compliance requirements," writes Dwight Klappich, Analyst for Gartner in Hype Cycle for Transportation, 2011, July 26, 2011.

To be included in the 2012 Best Practices Survey for Global Trade Management, please send an email to: info@kewill.com.