Samuel Jackson

The eco label was intended to encourage sustainable production and consumption by creating awareness among consumers of the environmental effects of everyday products. Its objectives are:

• To promote the design, production, marketing and use of products which have a reduced environmental impact during their entire life cycle.
• And to provide consumer with better information on the environmental impact of the products.
• The purpose of eco-labels is to assist the consumer who wants to choose environmentally preferred products. They are particularly prevalent in Northern Europe where there are currently a number of eco-label schemes up and running.

There are cases when traders do business without L/C terms. For instance, a buyer may not be able to obtain an L/C from his bank due to tight regulations. Another reason is when the buyer resides in a country where banks do not issue L/C at all. There are also cases when the exporter does not need an L/C since the buyer is a credible leading company or the import’s good financial standing is very well known to the exporter from the long standing business relationship. Generally speaking, exporting to an unknown overseas importer without L/C terms is rather risky, as there is no guarantee against non-payment by the importer. Nevertheless, there are two terms of settlement through documentary collection without using L/C. They are commonly called D/P (Documents against Payment) terms and D/A (Documents against Acceptance) terms.

Basically, there are two methods of export selling – direct and indirect. For direct exporting, the firm makes its own arrangements either within the existing selling apparatus or by setting up a separate and different department/ company to handle export transactions. In case of indirect exporting, the firm sells through an intermediary like merchant – exporters, Export Houses, Export Consortia/Marketing Groups, and Trading Corporations – Central and State.

Though the choice between the two methods of selling depends upon different considerations, the most important being the amount of money and the effort one wants to put in. It may some times be advisable to operate through agencies.

Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) codes are 10-digit codes (e.g., 0901.21.0045) used to identify products. They may be called HTS codes for short. HTS codes are U.S.-specific and are used for import into the U.S. They are administered by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).

An HTS code takes the same form as an HS code for the first six digits and then has four differing last digits. It’s very important that all U.S. importers know and use the correct HTS codes because commodity duties are assessed based on this classification. With some limited exceptions, HTSUS codes can also be used by U.S. exporters on their export paperwork.