International Shipping Made Easy

Finally there are step by step instructions for shipping a package internationally all in one place. These instructions are meant to empower the reader when dealing with freight forwarders, shipping carriers. Most businesses will elect to let someone else worry about customs forms and duties however what happens to that individual shipper who want to send a case a beer to Chile for a Wedding? These instructions will help provide insight and knowledge about the international shipping process. Knowledge is power...or so they say.

The Most favored nation status of china is something that is generally misunderstood by the average American. Most favored nation does NOT mean that China gets the better treatment than other nations in terms of international trade. China was granted the "Most Favored" nation status when it was allowed to joing the World Trade organization. All the countries in the World Trade Orgainzation enjoy "Most Favored Nation" status. It really means that China after being allowed to join the World Trade Organization enjoys Normal Trade Relations with the United States. This makes the "Most Favored Nation" moniker a bit of a misnomera dn has caused problems with consituents who beleive that China is getting preferential treatment. That is why this term is being phased or replaced in the United States-at least. It goes back to the old adage if we are all special then we are really all the same aren't we?

How To Ship To China?

There are many definitions for "weight"used by the shipping industry and all of them serve a purpose. Here is a nice description of the different shipping weights and how they are interrelated. Interestingly a car antenna can add allot more cost that you think...if you don't understand the different weight definitions. Go find out for yourself.

IATA code lookup tables are often used by both travel agents and freight forwarders and have a very interesting history. This begs the question...at this point in history would you rather be a travel agent or a freight forwarder? Both of these occupations benefit from cerification from the IATA not to be confused with IATAN. In fact, IATA provides certification courses for travel agents and freight forwarders. When you think about it...freight forwarders are really travel agents for packages or shipments. Both occupations are middle men for transportation one for people and the other for packages. Both have a need of outside suppliers such as airlines and ships. You would be hard pressed to find a parent that would encourage their child to be a travel agent-for the obvious reason. The travel agent's suppliers have gone straight to the public for booking-essentially taking out the middleman. This is not the case for package shipping-yet. The average shipper who wants to send a package to a relative in India, China or Venezuela feels very daunted when thinking about the shipping rules and regulations involved in shipping a package to another country. This is where the middle man adds true value to the transaction and is compensated for the service they perform. This will probably be the case for awhile (although there are online shipping resources desgned to assist the general public in becomming more informed about international shipping). So in response to the above question would I rather be a travel agent or a freight forwarder. I guess I would choose the latter.

The United States top trading partners are Canada, China, Mexico and Japan in that order. Total trade with the United States is mostly centralized into 15 trading partners. The United States is still the World's leading importer and exporter.

Much of the textiles imported into the United States comes from China. DHL had long recognized the potential of trade with China and has had a Central Asia Hub, a dedicated and purpose-built air express cargo facility, at the Hong Kong International Airport open since August, 2004. Fedex has since initiated a hub in China that is expected to be finished in December of 2008 in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. UPS is planning on opening an International Air Hub at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai that is slated to be operational next year. This hub will ink all of China through Shanghai to UPS' international network in the United States. It probably stands to reason that DHL at the moment is the most qualified to handle shipments to and from China with the most logistic and cost efficiency. This will change in the next few years but it is the case now. In fact in terms of Hubs DHL has almost triple the number of hubs than that of both Fedex and DHL.

Hubs allow packages to be transported with much greater efficiency. They almost act as a drainage pipe that transports packages from on area in the world to another. If your shipping company has a hub in China and one in India then is is more efficient to gather all packages at the China hub and then transport to the India hub before distributing to your destination in India. Otherwise, your package will have to go through many more steps to arrive at its destination which will surely cost more to ship.