Blogs
NAFDAC registration: what it requires and who can apply
A manufacturer can have a finished product, a confirmed Nigerian buyer, and a shipment ready to book, and still have no lawful way to sell that product in Nigeria. The problem is rarely the paperwork. It is the name on the application. NAFDAC registration is the approval a regulated product needs before it can be imported, sold, or distributed in Nigeria. It is issued by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). The process is well documented, but the first question is not what it requires. It is who is allowed to apply, because the applicant must be a company incorporated in Nigeria. Readers checking whether a product they have already bought is genuine can search the registration number in NAFDAC’s official product verification database. This article covers registering a product, not verifying one.
Sanctions Screening for Trade: Which Lists Apply, and When to Check
A company can be missing from every sanctions list in the world and still be off-limits. Its name is clean, its registration is current, and its website looks like any other supplier’s. The problem sits one level up. Two blocked shareholders each own 25 percent, and under US rules that makes the whole company blocked too. Sanctions screening for trade means checking every party and asset on a shipment, from consignee to vessel, against government lists of restricted persons, and knowing where a name search stops being enough. Banks use the same lists, but a shipment raises questions a bank account never does: who owns the consignee, who sits in the middle, and which ship carries the goods.
OFAC Compliance: Who Is Subject, and What Creates a US Nexus
A shipment of US-made servers leaves Dubai for a buyer in Nairobi. Nobody on the deal is American, the goods never touch US soil, and the invoice is paid in dollars. Two of those details are enough to bring the deal within reach of the US Treasury. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is the Treasury division that administers and enforces US economic and trade sanctions, and its reach runs well beyond US borders. For a company outside the United States, the first question is not what OFAC requires. It is whether OFAC applies at all.
The Commerce Control List: Where it sits and how it is built
Most exporters first encounter the Commerce Control List as a five-character code on a shipping document and never open the list itself. That gap causes real confusion. The Commerce Control List (CCL) is the list of dual-use items controlled under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). An Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) is the code an item receives once it matches an entry on that list. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. This article covers the list as a document: where it sits, how it is built, what falls outside it, and how it changes.
Deemed Export: When Sharing Information Counts as an Export
Customs will never see this kind of export. There is no shipment, no declaration, and no border crossing- only information passing from one person to another. Under US export controls, releasing controlled technology to a foreign person inside the United States is treated as an export to that person's country, and it needs the same authorization a physical shipment would. In India, "deemed exports" means something different: goods made in India that never leave the country but qualify for export benefits under the Foreign Trade Policy and GST. This page covers the US export control meaning.
ITAR vs EAR: How to Tell Which One Controls Your Product
Two parts sit on the same pallet, bound for the same military aircraft program. One ships under State Department rules, the other under Commerce Department rules, and nothing on the box tells you which is which. The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) govern defense articles on the US Munitions List (USML). The Export Administration Regulations (EAR) govern dual-use and commercial items on the Commerce Control List (CCL). Which list describes each part decides who has to be in place before the pallet moves.