A couple of weeks ago we ended our post, “YOUR China Supplier Information. It’s Out There,” with the question, “What do you do to prevent your Western buyers from learning about your Chinese suppliers and going around you?” Yesterday we received an answer from a loyal reader who says he maintains an ongoing request with US customs for confidential treatment of his company’s vessel manifest information.
Let me explain.
United States Customs and Border Protection is required to keep the import information (contained on entry documents) quasi-confidential. Someone cannot just walk in off the street and get access to all of an importer’s manifest data.
The reason the manifest data is so important is because it usually contains all sorts of information the importer/outsourcing typically prefer remains secret. Most importantly, the manifest data usually lists the foreign manufacturer of the product you are importing. Many a company uses this information to go around the importer and just start buying directly from the Chinese manufacturer. You may have spent six months and $50,000 searching out the perfect Chinese manufacturer of your product and you certainly do not want someone else getting that same information merely by checking your manifests.
But it really is nearly that simple.
The reason has become so simple to check other company’s manifests is because Custom’s confidentiality requirement has a media exception big enough to drive a truck through. The media exception allows media to collect and publish manifest data and the definition of “media” seems to encompass a number of companies that gather up this information and then re-sell it on the internet. For companies trying to keep their foreign manufacturing information confidential, this exception creates a significant problem.
But there is an exception/solution to the exception.
The solution is to submit a separate confidentiality request to the Custom Bureau’s Privacy Branch, specifically requesting the information on your vessel manifests not be disclosed at all. If your request is granted (and it nearly always is) your information will remain confidential for two years.
Then, after the initial two year period, your sending a letter requesting a renewal of confidentiality will extend confidentiality for another two years. There is no limit on the number of renewal requests you can make either. To be safe, if you are going to submit a renewal request, you should do so around 60 days before your existing protection expires, so as to avoid a protection gap period during which your vessel manifest information might leak to the media and be published.
Who’s doing this?
