---
id: KB-LG-002
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/logistics/customs-and-international-trade-documentation
idioma: en
categoria: sector-logistica
subcategoria: aduanas
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-LG-001, KB-CS-020]
citadoPor: [KB-LG-009, KB-LG-011, KB-LG-015, KB-LG-022]
---

# Customs and international trade

_Where badly prepared paperwork does not delay: it strands the goods and costs by the day._

**Responde a:** customs clearance documentation · goods stuck at customs over paperwork · certificate of origin export · documents to export goods

At customs, documentation differs from everything else: there is no margin. An incomplete document does not generate an email asking for clarification, it generates stranded goods costing storage every day.

## Where each item comes from

| Document | Who holds it | How long it takes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Invoice and packing list | You | Immediate |
| Certificate of origin | Chamber or competent authority | Days |
| Health or technical certificates | The manufacturer or a body | Days or weeks |
| Transport documentation | The forwarder or the carrier | At booking |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> What takes longest is almost never yours: it is what depends on a third party. Requesting it when the deal is confirmed rather than when preparing clearance is the difference between shipping on time and paying storage.

## The commonest mistake

Preparing each consignment from scratch. If you always export to the same markets with the same products, the document list changes little: built as a process, it fills in while the load is prepared rather than the night before.

> [!WARNING]
> Keep what was submitted with its date. If a discrepancy later arises about what was declared — and in international trade they do — you hold the exact set, not a folder you could have touched afterwards.

## Frameworks cited

Import and export customs regimes, origin of goods and its certificates, health or technical requirements by product, and the documentary duties of the transport contract. What each market and tariff heading requires is confirmed by your forwarder or adviser: this only explains how to have it gathered in time.

> [!NOTE]
> If you work with a forwarder, give them scoped read access to the consignment instead of emailing documents. They see what they need and no loose copies remain.

**Can I give the forwarder access?**

Yes, read-only and scoped to that operation.

**What if a non-EU supplier's document is missing?**

That is what takes longest; the case at least proves when it was requested.

**Does it serve for a post-clearance check?**

That is exactly its purpose: what was submitted, with its date.

## Ejemplos

**An exporter prepares each clearance the night before and pays storage twice a quarter.**

- Builds the consignment as a process
- Requests third-party items when the deal is confirmed

→ Customs holds disappear, and storage costs with them.

**An operation's documents sit in three email threads.**

- Gathers everything in the operation's file

→ What is there and what is missing is visible at once.

**A review asks about operations from three years ago.**

- Keeps each operation with its documents

→ You answer from the archive.

**The forwarder changes and the history goes with them.**

- Keeps its own archive of every operation

→ The change does not take the previous years.

**The document evidencing origin is missing.**

- Checks what is missing before treating the operation as closed

→ The gap is caught while the supplier still replies.

**An invoice is corrected and the first one disappears.**

- Keeps both versions with their dates

→ The correction can be explained.