Hell lot of problems has to be faced by small medium businesses. There are lot of barriers that has to be overcome by SMEs. We’ve identified few barriers that are taken from various sources.
INTERNAL BARRIERS: Barriers internal to the enterprise associated with organisational
resources/capabilities and company approach to export business.
Informational Barriers: problems in identifying, selecting, and contacting international markets due to information inefficiencies.
Limited information to locate/analyse markets: difficulty in knowing what national and international sources of information is available or required to reduce the level of uncertainty of foreign markets.
Unreliable data about the international market: problems associated with the source, quality, and comparability of available information used to attempt to increase understanding of foreign markets (including access to data, ability to retrieve data quickly, and the cost of obtaining data).
Identifying foreign business opportunities: difficulty in strategically and/or proactively identifying and selecting opportunities in foreign markets (including customers, contacts, business partners and joint ventures).
Inability to contact overseas customers: difficulty in contacting customers in overseas markets due to geographical distance and time-zones, poor research by the firm in identifying customers, and limited exposure to sources listing potential customers such as databases.
Functional Barriers: inefficiencies of various functions internal to the enterprises such as human resources, production, and finance, with regard to exporting.
Lack of managerial time to deal with internationalization: inability for managers to
devote sufficient time, resources and energy towards selecting, entering and expanding into
foreign markets, designing export-marketing strategies, and conducting business with overseas customers.
Insufficient quantity of and/or untrained personnel for internationalization: problems associated with insufficient numbers of personnel to handle the excess work demanded by export operations, in addition to a lack of specialized knowledge and expertise within the company to deal with export-business tasks such as documentation handling, logistical arrangements, and communicating with foreign customers (including knowledge of foreign languages, cultures and hands-on export experience).
Lack of excess production capacity for exports: inexistence of or inability to generate excess production over and above what the domestic market requires in order to initiate or expand export business operations.
Shortage of working capital to finance exports: difficulty in allocating and/or justifying adequate expenditure towards researching overseas markets, visiting foreign customers, adapting export marketing strategies and/or inability to access export financing assistance from governmental agencies, banks and other investors.
Marketing Barriers: pressures imposed by external forces on adapting the elements of the company’s marketing strategy including barriers associated with the company’s product, pricing, distribution, logistics, and promotional activities overseas.
Developing new products for foreign markets: inability, difficulty or unwillingness to
develop entirely new products for specific foreign market needs and wants.
Adapting export product design/style: inability, difficulty or unwillingness to adapt the company’s product design or style to the idiosyncrasies of each foreign market (e.g. different conditions of use, variations in purchasing power, dissimilar consumer tastes, diverse sociocultural settings).
Meeting export product quality/standards/specifications: inability, difficulty, or
unwillingness to adapt products necessitated by both legal and non-legal differences in quality standards and preferences among overseas markets.
Meeting export packaging/labelling requirements: inability, difficulty or unwillingness to adapt: packaging for requirements such as safety during transportation, storage and handling; and/or labelling for requirements such as different languages, specific information required by the host country (such as expiry dates, types of ingredients and net weight), and symbols, pictures, and colours preferred by foreign markets.
Offering technical/after-sales service: problems associated with the provision of
technical and/or after-sales service including delays and increased costs associated with:
geographical distances between the company and its export market; setting up servicing
operations in strategic locations; maintaining large quantities of spare parts; adjusting the
approach to after-sales service for country variations in conditions of use, competitive practices, and physical landscape.
Offering satisfactory prices to customers: inability to offer foreign customers
satisfactory prices because of: higher unit costs due to small production runs; additional costs incurred in modifying product, packaging and/or service; higher administrative, operational and transportation expenses; extra taxes, tariffs, and fees imposed; and higher costs of marketing and distribution.
Difficulty in matching competitors’ prices: lack of price competitiveness due to factors that are controllable (e.g. strict adoption of a cost-plus pricing method) and/or uncontrollable (e.g. existence of unfavourable foreign exchange rates; differences among countries’ cost structure of production, distribution, and logistics; adoption of dumping practices by competitors; and government policy to subsidize local industry).
Granting credit facilities to foreign customers: problems due to a lack of funds to
sustain providing credit facilities to customers and/or a fear that debts may not be recovered from customers that might be far away, have no past experience with the company, and come from countries with unstable politico-economic environments.
Complexity of foreign distribution channels: problems associated with adjusting
distribution methods according to the variations and idiosyncrasies within each foreign market (e.g. range and quality of services offered, and number of layers of a distribution channel).
Accessing export distribution channels: problems associated with gaining access to
distribution channels in overseas markets (including channels that are occupied by the
competition; the costs of managing the length of the channel; or various levels of the system being controlled by a certain distributor).
Obtaining reliable foreign representation: difficulties in obtaining reliable
representation overseas who meet the: structural (territorial coverage, financial strength, physical facilities), operational (product assortment, logistical arrangements, warehouse facilities), and behavioural (market reputation, relationships with government, cooperative attitude) requirements of the exporter and is not already engaged by a competitor.
Maintaining control over foreign middlemen: problems associated with companies
having less control over foreign middlemen due to geographic and cultural distance, dependence on middlemen due to binding legal agreements, difficulties finding replacement middlemen; and/or the middleman carries other product lines that are more profitable than those of the exporter.
Difficulty in supplying inventory abroad: problems associated with re-supplying the
foreign market adequately including transportation delays, demand fluctuations, and unexpected events that create shortages of the company’s products overseas.
Unavailability of warehousing facilities abroad: problems associated with finding
adequate warehousing overseas including lack of proper installations to safeguard product
quality, prohibitive storage fees, outdated warehousing equipment technology, and the need for a multiple warehousing system for larger countries.
Excessive transportation/insurance costs: the exacerbation of transportation costs
because of large distances to and within foreign markets, poor infrastructural facilities, limited availability of transportation, and delays in product delivery; and/or insurance costs because of the higher risks associated with selling goods overseas.
Adjusting export promotional activities to the target market: problems associated with adjusting promotional activities due to country variations in buying motives, consumption patterns, and government regulations including: variations in the composition of the target audience, inappropriate content of the advertising message, unavailability or different use of advertising media, restrictions in the frequency/duration of advertising, and insufficient means to assess advertising effectiveness across countries.
EXTERNAL BARRIERS: Barriers stemming from the home and host environment within which the firm operates.
Procedural Barriers: barriers associated with the operating aspects of transactions with foreign customers.
Unfamiliar exporting procedures/paperwork: difficulty in understanding and/or
managing customs documentation, shipping arrangements, and other export procedures.
Difficulties communicating with overseas customers: insufficient and/or infrequent
communication with customers due to the large geographical and psychological distances
between buyers and sellers, and poor communications infrastructure.
Slow collection of payments from abroad: difficulty in achieving timely collection of
payments from overseas due to the lack of immediate contact with overseas markets, foreign buyers requesting more credit facilities, the use of intermediaries to enter a foreign market, and/or strict currency restrictions imposed by the central bank of the foreign market.
Difficulties in enforcing contracts and resolving disputes: problems associated with: enforcing contracts due to poor quality (e.g. non-verifiable information, ambiguity, lack of consideration or mutual acceptance, and/or unreasonable breadth of the contract); enforcing contracts because of unclear expectations, misinterpretation, ‘bad faith’ and/or unwillingness of contract partner(s) to uphold the contract; resolving disputes because of nonexistent or unsophisticated dispute resolution mechanisms, time and/or cost of accessing foreign legal systems, lack of knowledge of foreign laws, and conflicts of laws; and/or unwillingness of contract partner(s) to participate in dispute resolution mechanisms.
Governmental Barriers: Barriers associated with the actions or inaction by the home government in relation to its indigenous companies and exporters.
Lack of home government assistance/incentives: support and/or encouragement by
government agencies to SMEs for export and internationalizing activities is non-existent, scarce or unsophisticated.
Unfavorable home rules and regulations: local exporters are restricted by controls
imposed by the home government including restrictions on exports of either components or final products to certain hostile countries and/or restrictions on products with national security or foreign policy significance.
Unfavourable foreign rules and regulations: local exporters are restricted by controls imposed by the host government including restrictions on exports of either components or final products to certain hostile countries and/or restrictions on products with national security or foreign policy significance.
Customer and Competitor Barriers: Barriers associated with the firm’s customers and competitors in foreign markets, which can have an immediate effect on its export operations.
Different foreign customer habits/attitudes: difficulty in adjusting the company’s
strategy to accommodate variations in consumer habits and attitudes caused by different
topographic and climatic conditions, household size and structure, level of technical
understanding, income level and distribution, manners and customers, and education standards.
Keen competition in overseas markets: difficulty in maintaining competitive advantage in overseas markets due to more complicated and intensive competitive situations (e.g. competition arising from many sources, different cost competitive strategies and protections (including subsidies given to local competitors), different brand positioning and variable marketing strategies).
Business Environment Barriers: Barriers associated with the economic, political-legal and sociocultural environment of the foreign market(s) within which the company operates or is planning to operate.
Poor/deteriorating economic conditions abroad: unpredictable consumer behaviour
caused by economic effects such as large foreign debts, high inflation rates, and high
unemployment levels in foreign markets, which erode their citizens’ purchasing power and
impacts on their spending habits (e.g. seeking more economical products, purchasing goods less often, and carefully selecting what they buy).
Foreign currency exchange risks: risks to international business transactions arising from unstable exchange rates leading to fluctuating export prices overseas; revaluation of exporter’s currency resulting in less favourable prices to end-users; and unconvertible foreign currencies that impede the repatriation of sales/profits from overseas.
Unfamiliar foreign business practices: variations in business practices from country to country which may confuse or send distorted signals to companies that are unfamiliar with the formal and informal procedures performed in foreign markets.
Different socio-cultural traits: challenges associated with understanding and accommodating the affects that variations in religion, values, attitudes, manners, customs, education, and social organisation have on consumer behaviour, targeting approaches, and marketing programmes.
Verbal/non-verbal language differences: challenges associated with understanding the oral and written aspects of the foreign language and its nonverbal characteristics, such as body language and time perception, in order to communicate both verbally and non-verbally through marketing, advertising, branding and packaging.
Inadequacy of infrastructure for e-commerce: non-existent or unsophisticated structures (e.g. hardware, software, security, and broadband) are in place to support the distribution, sale, purchase, marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks.
Political instability in foreign markets: difficulty in initiating or maintaining operations overseas due to economic (low household incomes, inflationary trends, large foreign debt), societal (religious fundamentalism, ethnic tension, high degree of corruption), and/or political (authoritarian regime, conflict with neighbours, military control) factors.
Tariff and Non-tariff Barriers: Barriers associated with restrictions on exporting and
internationalizing imposed by government policies and regulations in foreign markets.
High tariff barriers: the burden associated with excessive tax applied to imported goods to artificially inflate prices of imports and protect domestic industries from foreign competition.
Strict foreign rules and regulations: controls placed by foreign governments on
companies that sell goods in their markets including entry restrictions which delay or restrict the flow of the product in the market; price controls; special tax rates; and exchange controls.
Inadequate property rights protection: difficulties associated with an inadequate legal framework to protect the ownership, use, control, benefit, transferal or sale of both physical and intangible property especially intellectual property (e.g. copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets).
Restrictive health, safety and technical standards: difficulties associated with meeting high, non-transparent, inconsistent and/or discriminatory country-specific standards for imported goods including: sanitary requirements; industrial and environmental protection standards; conformity assessment procedures (testing and re-testing, verification, inspection and certification to confirm products fulfill standards); and technical standards (e.g. preparation, adoption and application of different standards for specific characteristics of a product such as production, design, functions and performance).
Arbitrary tariff classification and reclassification: problems and costs associated with the practices by Customs administrations of classifying goods in a way which is not in
accordance with internationally accepted rules and principles of tariff classification (e.g.
increasing the level of duty payable for imported goods either for trade policy, trade protection and/or revenue raising reasons; imposing tariffs less favourable than those implied previously through reclassification of imported goods; inability to obtain firm rulings from overseas Customs authorities on duties for some products; and/or lack of technical knowledge by Customs’ administrations to enable them to provide correct tariff classifications to importers).
Unfavourable quotas and/or embargoes: unreasonable prohibition of commerce and
trade with a certain country or unreasonable restrictions on the quantity of specific goods being imported to certain countries.
High costs of Customs administration: costs associated with: divergent interpretations of customs valuation rules by different Customs administrations (including the use of arbitrary or fictitious customs values); delay in customs clearance procedures (e.g. excessive and/or irrelevant paperwork, congestion at points of entry, delay and cost of cargo clearance); lack of procedures for prompt review; and lack of transparency and/or irregular/illegal practices (e.g. unofficial customs procedures, unwritten rules and unpublished changes, unofficial fees to accelerate processing, and the absence of information on customs regulations and procedures in English).
INTERNAL BARRIERS: Barriers internal to the enterprise associated with organisational
resources/capabilities and company approach to export business.
Informational Barriers: problems in identifying, selecting, and contacting international markets due to information inefficiencies.
Limited information to locate/analyse markets: difficulty in knowing what national and international sources of information is available or required to reduce the level of uncertainty of foreign markets.
Unreliable data about the international market: problems associated with the source, quality, and comparability of available information used to attempt to increase understanding of foreign markets (including access to data, ability to retrieve data quickly, and the cost of obtaining data).
Identifying foreign business opportunities: difficulty in strategically and/or proactively identifying and selecting opportunities in foreign markets (including customers, contacts, business partners and joint ventures).
Inability to contact overseas customers: difficulty in contacting customers in overseas markets due to geographical distance and time-zones, poor research by the firm in identifying customers, and limited exposure to sources listing potential customers such as databases.
Functional Barriers: inefficiencies of various functions internal to the enterprises such as human resources, production, and finance, with regard to exporting.
Lack of managerial time to deal with internationalization: inability for managers to
devote sufficient time, resources and energy towards selecting, entering and expanding into
foreign markets, designing export-marketing strategies, and conducting business with overseas customers.
Insufficient quantity of and/or untrained personnel for internationalization: problems associated with insufficient numbers of personnel to handle the excess work demanded by export operations, in addition to a lack of specialized knowledge and expertise within the company to deal with export-business tasks such as documentation handling, logistical arrangements, and communicating with foreign customers (including knowledge of foreign languages, cultures and hands-on export experience).
Lack of excess production capacity for exports: inexistence of or inability to generate excess production over and above what the domestic market requires in order to initiate or expand export business operations.
Shortage of working capital to finance exports: difficulty in allocating and/or justifying adequate expenditure towards researching overseas markets, visiting foreign customers, adapting export marketing strategies and/or inability to access export financing assistance from governmental agencies, banks and other investors.
Marketing Barriers: pressures imposed by external forces on adapting the elements of the company’s marketing strategy including barriers associated with the company’s product, pricing, distribution, logistics, and promotional activities overseas.
Developing new products for foreign markets: inability, difficulty or unwillingness to
develop entirely new products for specific foreign market needs and wants.
Adapting export product design/style: inability, difficulty or unwillingness to adapt the company’s product design or style to the idiosyncrasies of each foreign market (e.g. different conditions of use, variations in purchasing power, dissimilar consumer tastes, diverse sociocultural settings).
Meeting export product quality/standards/specifications: inability, difficulty, or
unwillingness to adapt products necessitated by both legal and non-legal differences in quality standards and preferences among overseas markets.
Meeting export packaging/labelling requirements: inability, difficulty or unwillingness to adapt: packaging for requirements such as safety during transportation, storage and handling; and/or labelling for requirements such as different languages, specific information required by the host country (such as expiry dates, types of ingredients and net weight), and symbols, pictures, and colours preferred by foreign markets.
Offering technical/after-sales service: problems associated with the provision of
technical and/or after-sales service including delays and increased costs associated with:
geographical distances between the company and its export market; setting up servicing
operations in strategic locations; maintaining large quantities of spare parts; adjusting the
approach to after-sales service for country variations in conditions of use, competitive practices, and physical landscape.
Offering satisfactory prices to customers: inability to offer foreign customers
satisfactory prices because of: higher unit costs due to small production runs; additional costs incurred in modifying product, packaging and/or service; higher administrative, operational and transportation expenses; extra taxes, tariffs, and fees imposed; and higher costs of marketing and distribution.
Difficulty in matching competitors’ prices: lack of price competitiveness due to factors that are controllable (e.g. strict adoption of a cost-plus pricing method) and/or uncontrollable (e.g. existence of unfavourable foreign exchange rates; differences among countries’ cost structure of production, distribution, and logistics; adoption of dumping practices by competitors; and government policy to subsidize local industry).
Granting credit facilities to foreign customers: problems due to a lack of funds to
sustain providing credit facilities to customers and/or a fear that debts may not be recovered from customers that might be far away, have no past experience with the company, and come from countries with unstable politico-economic environments.
Complexity of foreign distribution channels: problems associated with adjusting
distribution methods according to the variations and idiosyncrasies within each foreign market (e.g. range and quality of services offered, and number of layers of a distribution channel).
Accessing export distribution channels: problems associated with gaining access to
distribution channels in overseas markets (including channels that are occupied by the
competition; the costs of managing the length of the channel; or various levels of the system being controlled by a certain distributor).
Obtaining reliable foreign representation: difficulties in obtaining reliable
representation overseas who meet the: structural (territorial coverage, financial strength, physical facilities), operational (product assortment, logistical arrangements, warehouse facilities), and behavioural (market reputation, relationships with government, cooperative attitude) requirements of the exporter and is not already engaged by a competitor.
Maintaining control over foreign middlemen: problems associated with companies
having less control over foreign middlemen due to geographic and cultural distance, dependence on middlemen due to binding legal agreements, difficulties finding replacement middlemen; and/or the middleman carries other product lines that are more profitable than those of the exporter.
Difficulty in supplying inventory abroad: problems associated with re-supplying the
foreign market adequately including transportation delays, demand fluctuations, and unexpected events that create shortages of the company’s products overseas.
Unavailability of warehousing facilities abroad: problems associated with finding
adequate warehousing overseas including lack of proper installations to safeguard product
quality, prohibitive storage fees, outdated warehousing equipment technology, and the need for a multiple warehousing system for larger countries.
Excessive transportation/insurance costs: the exacerbation of transportation costs
because of large distances to and within foreign markets, poor infrastructural facilities, limited availability of transportation, and delays in product delivery; and/or insurance costs because of the higher risks associated with selling goods overseas.
Adjusting export promotional activities to the target market: problems associated with adjusting promotional activities due to country variations in buying motives, consumption patterns, and government regulations including: variations in the composition of the target audience, inappropriate content of the advertising message, unavailability or different use of advertising media, restrictions in the frequency/duration of advertising, and insufficient means to assess advertising effectiveness across countries.
EXTERNAL BARRIERS: Barriers stemming from the home and host environment within which the firm operates.
Procedural Barriers: barriers associated with the operating aspects of transactions with foreign customers.
Unfamiliar exporting procedures/paperwork: difficulty in understanding and/or
managing customs documentation, shipping arrangements, and other export procedures.
Difficulties communicating with overseas customers: insufficient and/or infrequent
communication with customers due to the large geographical and psychological distances
between buyers and sellers, and poor communications infrastructure.
Slow collection of payments from abroad: difficulty in achieving timely collection of
payments from overseas due to the lack of immediate contact with overseas markets, foreign buyers requesting more credit facilities, the use of intermediaries to enter a foreign market, and/or strict currency restrictions imposed by the central bank of the foreign market.
Difficulties in enforcing contracts and resolving disputes: problems associated with: enforcing contracts due to poor quality (e.g. non-verifiable information, ambiguity, lack of consideration or mutual acceptance, and/or unreasonable breadth of the contract); enforcing contracts because of unclear expectations, misinterpretation, ‘bad faith’ and/or unwillingness of contract partner(s) to uphold the contract; resolving disputes because of nonexistent or unsophisticated dispute resolution mechanisms, time and/or cost of accessing foreign legal systems, lack of knowledge of foreign laws, and conflicts of laws; and/or unwillingness of contract partner(s) to participate in dispute resolution mechanisms.
Governmental Barriers: Barriers associated with the actions or inaction by the home government in relation to its indigenous companies and exporters.
Lack of home government assistance/incentives: support and/or encouragement by
government agencies to SMEs for export and internationalizing activities is non-existent, scarce or unsophisticated.
Unfavorable home rules and regulations: local exporters are restricted by controls
imposed by the home government including restrictions on exports of either components or final products to certain hostile countries and/or restrictions on products with national security or foreign policy significance.
Unfavourable foreign rules and regulations: local exporters are restricted by controls imposed by the host government including restrictions on exports of either components or final products to certain hostile countries and/or restrictions on products with national security or foreign policy significance.
Customer and Competitor Barriers: Barriers associated with the firm’s customers and competitors in foreign markets, which can have an immediate effect on its export operations.
Different foreign customer habits/attitudes: difficulty in adjusting the company’s
strategy to accommodate variations in consumer habits and attitudes caused by different
topographic and climatic conditions, household size and structure, level of technical
understanding, income level and distribution, manners and customers, and education standards.
Keen competition in overseas markets: difficulty in maintaining competitive advantage in overseas markets due to more complicated and intensive competitive situations (e.g. competition arising from many sources, different cost competitive strategies and protections (including subsidies given to local competitors), different brand positioning and variable marketing strategies).
Business Environment Barriers: Barriers associated with the economic, political-legal and sociocultural environment of the foreign market(s) within which the company operates or is planning to operate.
Poor/deteriorating economic conditions abroad: unpredictable consumer behaviour
caused by economic effects such as large foreign debts, high inflation rates, and high
unemployment levels in foreign markets, which erode their citizens’ purchasing power and
impacts on their spending habits (e.g. seeking more economical products, purchasing goods less often, and carefully selecting what they buy).
Foreign currency exchange risks: risks to international business transactions arising from unstable exchange rates leading to fluctuating export prices overseas; revaluation of exporter’s currency resulting in less favourable prices to end-users; and unconvertible foreign currencies that impede the repatriation of sales/profits from overseas.
Unfamiliar foreign business practices: variations in business practices from country to country which may confuse or send distorted signals to companies that are unfamiliar with the formal and informal procedures performed in foreign markets.
Different socio-cultural traits: challenges associated with understanding and accommodating the affects that variations in religion, values, attitudes, manners, customs, education, and social organisation have on consumer behaviour, targeting approaches, and marketing programmes.
Verbal/non-verbal language differences: challenges associated with understanding the oral and written aspects of the foreign language and its nonverbal characteristics, such as body language and time perception, in order to communicate both verbally and non-verbally through marketing, advertising, branding and packaging.
Inadequacy of infrastructure for e-commerce: non-existent or unsophisticated structures (e.g. hardware, software, security, and broadband) are in place to support the distribution, sale, purchase, marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks.
Political instability in foreign markets: difficulty in initiating or maintaining operations overseas due to economic (low household incomes, inflationary trends, large foreign debt), societal (religious fundamentalism, ethnic tension, high degree of corruption), and/or political (authoritarian regime, conflict with neighbours, military control) factors.
Tariff and Non-tariff Barriers: Barriers associated with restrictions on exporting and
internationalizing imposed by government policies and regulations in foreign markets.
High tariff barriers: the burden associated with excessive tax applied to imported goods to artificially inflate prices of imports and protect domestic industries from foreign competition.
Strict foreign rules and regulations: controls placed by foreign governments on
companies that sell goods in their markets including entry restrictions which delay or restrict the flow of the product in the market; price controls; special tax rates; and exchange controls.
Inadequate property rights protection: difficulties associated with an inadequate legal framework to protect the ownership, use, control, benefit, transferal or sale of both physical and intangible property especially intellectual property (e.g. copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets).
Restrictive health, safety and technical standards: difficulties associated with meeting high, non-transparent, inconsistent and/or discriminatory country-specific standards for imported goods including: sanitary requirements; industrial and environmental protection standards; conformity assessment procedures (testing and re-testing, verification, inspection and certification to confirm products fulfill standards); and technical standards (e.g. preparation, adoption and application of different standards for specific characteristics of a product such as production, design, functions and performance).
Arbitrary tariff classification and reclassification: problems and costs associated with the practices by Customs administrations of classifying goods in a way which is not in
accordance with internationally accepted rules and principles of tariff classification (e.g.
increasing the level of duty payable for imported goods either for trade policy, trade protection and/or revenue raising reasons; imposing tariffs less favourable than those implied previously through reclassification of imported goods; inability to obtain firm rulings from overseas Customs authorities on duties for some products; and/or lack of technical knowledge by Customs’ administrations to enable them to provide correct tariff classifications to importers).
Unfavourable quotas and/or embargoes: unreasonable prohibition of commerce and
trade with a certain country or unreasonable restrictions on the quantity of specific goods being imported to certain countries.
High costs of Customs administration: costs associated with: divergent interpretations of customs valuation rules by different Customs administrations (including the use of arbitrary or fictitious customs values); delay in customs clearance procedures (e.g. excessive and/or irrelevant paperwork, congestion at points of entry, delay and cost of cargo clearance); lack of procedures for prompt review; and lack of transparency and/or irregular/illegal practices (e.g. unofficial customs procedures, unwritten rules and unpublished changes, unofficial fees to accelerate processing, and the absence of information on customs regulations and procedures in English).
