Governments of many countries require pre-shipment inspections (PSI). Inspection of imports at the point of supply is mainly designed to protect the interests of the buyers in the international purchasing process. A pre-shipment inspection includes:
Physical identification of the goods in the country of supply/export to ensure that the goods are in accordance with the description declared by the exporter.
Verification of the contract price. This is to ensure that the price is reasonably in line with current export prices from the country of supply or world market prices. Verification of price provides Customs with accurate data for the collection of import taxes and levies.
Customs classification is verified for each imported item to allow Customs to apply the correct tariff rates.
Pre-shipment inspection includes the checking of the commodity against any list of items subject to import regulations.
The extent of each pre-shipment inspection varies according to government requirements. Motivation for the PSI include: improved trade balance, optimize customs revenues, enhance domestic tax revenues, fight fraud and abuses of trade incentives, reliable trade statistics, protection of domestic industry, and consumer protection.
The following websites belong to inspection companies that are responsible to government procedures for PSI. They provide information on countries they are responsible for, and general information that is relevant to pre-shipment inspections.
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