Proponents list a host of benefits from FTAs, including:

- Expanded access to markets for both goods and services

- Greater protection of intellectual property rights, and a

- Growth in jobs that would accompany the opening of new markets

Taking this into consideration, Management Dynamics offers a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) management solution that provides solicitation and qualification in order to determine if a company’s product is eligible for preferential treatment. This can have a significant impact on the applicable duties for their products resulting in reduced total landed costs.

To learn more about the Free Trade Agreement Solution, read the full press release here.

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, May 12, 2010 – Management Dynamics, a leading provider of Global Trade Management solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with FTZ Corporation, a leading provider of Foreign-Trade Zone consulting services and developer of the SmartZone Premier application.  The partnership seeks to expand the use of foreign-trade zones integrated with core Global Trade Management (GTM) processes of import, export and trade agreement management.

Foreign-Trade Zones have been in use for nearly seventy six years with the passage of the Foreign-Trade Zones Act of 1934 to expedite and encourage foreign commerce.  Foreign-Trade Zones are now a key component of U.S. trade policy and offer companies several opportunities to reduce costs with:

- Exemption of duty payment upon re-export of goods

- Relief from inverted tariffs where raw materials with high duty rates can be transformed to an end product with a low duty rate

- Use of consolidated weekly entries to reduce merchandise processing fees (MPFs)

- Deferral of duty on any inventory stored within an FTZ

For many companies these benefits can justify the investment in a Foreign-Trade Zone in the first year of operation.

 “Foreign-trade zones are becoming an integral part of a company’s GTM strategy and their use is expanding given the strong value proposition and fast pay back,” said Craig Pool, President, FTZ Corporation.  “Our customers are looking to integrate foreign-trade zones across their GTM processes and we look forward to working with Management Dynamics to deliver this solution.”

FTZ Corporation has extensive experience, having implemented over two hundred and fifty Foreign-Trade Zone projects.  The company is also active in Washington D.C. with involvement in recent industry advancements including the passage of Weekly Entry legislation and opening up the benefits of Foreign-Trade Zones to new industries.  FTZ Corporation offers a complete set of implementation services including the application to the FTZ Board and activation of the zone with Customs and Border Protection.  Combined with the implementation of SmartZone Premier software, FTZ Corporation can cut the time to first benefit with a “turnkey” implementation.

“Implementing a foreign-trade zone program can generate millions in recurring savings and is a key initiative for companies as the global economy is rebuilding,” said Jim Preuninger, CEO, Management Dynamics.  “FTZ Corporation has a tremendous track record of success in this industry and we look forward to working together to expand the GTM market.”

About FTZ Corporation

The Foreign-Trade Zone Corporation is the only nationally recognized consulting firm with a practice focused on Foreign Trade-Zone consulting.  The firm provides a wide range of consulting work from Foreign-Trade Zones Board applications to activations with Customs and Border Protection, and administers nine foreign-trade zone projects. Its management of these projects is in keeping with the Foreign-Trade Zone Corporation’s philosophy that there is no substitute for hands-on-experience.

Compared to last year, Peruvian imports and exports are more than a billion U.S. dollars in trade with these four countries, and Peruvian exports has risen by 18 percent .

The new trade agreement will benefit the fishing and industry sector in Peru.

To read more, click here.

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, November 18, 2009 — Management Dynamics, a leading provider of Global Trade Management solutions, today announced the release of Trade Wizards 10.0, a Web-based portal to trade content from 122 countries that facilitates the research of complex trade questions. The new release makes it easier for companies to classify products, calculate landed costs and perform document determination at the Harmonized Schedule (HS) level.  In addition, a new user experience allows users to manage their searches and ultimately find information faster.

“Trade Wizards is an invaluable tool for our global trade team and we use it daily to quickly and accurately classify our products, determine applicable import or export controls, or to answer a question from the business on total landed cost,” said Glenda Welch, Director of Corporate Logistics and Transportation, Belkin International. “The latest version of Trade Wizards is much easier to use, allowing us to conduct our research more efficiently and to fully tap into Management Dynamics’ trade content library including the new HS-based document templates.” 

Management Dynamics’ Trade Wizards 10.0 enables the user to make quick, interactive queries using a standard Web browser to calculate landed cost, screen for restricted trade parties, search for HS and Export Control Number (ECN) classifications, identify applicable regulatory controls, and determine trade documents. Management Dynamics maintains the trade content needed to answers these questions for 122 countries or approximately 99 percent of the world market. What used to require many hours to manually research trade rules and regulations can be achieved in minutes using Trade Wizards 10.0.

New key features available on Trade Wizards 10.0 include:

• New Classification Workflow – Perform complex searches that include the tariff number and either a legal or common term to quickly find relevant classifications.  Also, searches may be defined with complete Boolean logic and search results are displayed in a tree format to simplify the navigation to a classification.

• Landed Cost Calculator Scenarios – Build landed cost scenarios with multiple origin countries to quickly identify the minimum landed costs with respect to product invoice, duty, VAT, excise, other governmental charges, transportation and insurance.

• Restricted Party Screening – Screen with an improved screening engine and access to Management Dynamics’ coverage of 94 restricted party lists offering the highest level of compliance with the lowest rate of false positives.

• Document Determination – Determine the documents required for exporting and importing based on country of export, country of import, and HS number. Results returned include hundreds of documents required for exports, imports, preferential agreements and product specific documents based on the HS number provided.

Trade Wizards 10.0 functionality is available in a highly intuitive user experience with online help that can be used immediately with no user training.

 “As businesses continue to globalize at a fast pace, it is important for supply chain teams to have the resources they need to keep up with the ever-changing trade regulations and supporting content,” said Nathan Pieri, SVP Marketing & Product Management, Management Dynamics, Inc. “The latest Trade Wizards 10.0 release takes a big step forward on usability and ultimately makes it easier for users to accurately answer their toughest trade questions.”

“Despite the economic slowdown, I am happy to note that trade in goods and services between India and EU has doubled over the past five years to reach almost 80 billion euros,” Singh told reporters after the meeting.

India is the European Union’s biggest trading partners, with a rise of over 29 percent within the last five years.  Plans are underway to complete the agreement within the next year.

To read the full article, click here.

“The largest benefits will come from economic integration,” says Jayson Myers, president of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME), the country’s largest trade and industry association. By that he means increased foreign direct investment, improved labor mobility and full access to government procurement.

But, will this new proposed trade agreement see the light of day? That may be up to the U.S. Canada is more dependent on exports than the U.S., and with the new ‘Buy-American’ campaign from the Obama Adminstration, this could be a hard sell.

“The ball is in the Obama administration’s court,” says Steven Schrage, a specialist in international business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. “If they want this to happen, they can move rapidly.”

To continue reading, click here.

Nathan Pieri, SVP Marketing & Product Management for Management Dynamics, describes how “leveraging FTAs is one of the biggest value propositions for trade compliance systems.”

According to an Aberdeen report:

“A disturbing 71 percent of all companies surveyed complain that internal stakeholders outside of the compliance department do not understand the impact of their actions on trade compliance or the risks associated with non-compliance,” it reports.

To respond to growing demand for more trade-agreement support, Management Dynamics last year introduced a solution capable of managing multiple FTAs. “Today we support 10 free-trade agreements and by the end of the year we will support 20,” Pieri says.

How does ROI play into compliance?

According to Supply Chain Brain, time will tell whether there is ROI to be found in the Importer Security Filing, but there will be costs in failing to comply. Fines of $5,000 per incident will begin next January when U.S. Customs and Border Protection is set to begin enforcement of the 10+2 rule.

For more information about trade agreement and how to stay compliant, click here.

To read the full article, click here.

“The FTA builds an ample highway of exchange for portable products, for the goods we produce and the services we offer,” said President Martinelli at the signing of the deal.

And Prime Minister Harper added: “Signing a free trade agreement with a key hemispheric partner like Panama is the logical next step in our policy of pursuing deeper integration and closer cooperation throughout the Americas.”

The free trade agreement will begin January 2010.

For more information, click here.

Around June 28th, Jordan and Canada signed a new trade agreement, giving Jordan full custom duty exemption on Jordanian goods. In return, over the next 4 years,Canadian products will receive  reduced custom duties.

 Forestry, manufacturing, agriculture and agri-food are expected to benefit from immediate duty-free access.

Next, Chile and Turkey signed a trade agreement around July 20th, which will allow 98 percent of its bilateral trade to be duty free. This is the first FTA between a South American country and Turkey.

  “This trade agreement signed by Chile can be an entrance to an economic zone of great potential, which is practically unexplored for us,” Chilean President Bachelet said.

Forestry and Agriculture will be most benefited in Chile.

For more information on Global Trade news, subscribe a free weekly Management Dynamics GTM newsletter. 

To read the full articles, click Canada/Jordan FTA or Chile/Turkey FTA.