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Proactive Compliance: Why Proving You’re Compliant Matters as Much as Being Compliant
In this episode of Simply Trade, hosts Lalo Solorzano and Andy Shiles sit down with Hugo Pakula, founder of Tru Identity. Together, they unpack a shift reshaping the relationship between CBP, importers, and customs brokers. Being compliant may no longer be enough. Instead, companies increasingly need to prove it through accurate data, documented controls, and processes that catch risk before cargo reaches the border.
From Reactive to Proactive
For years, importers often discovered problems only after CBP intervened at the port. However, Hugo argues the better model is catching discrepancies earlier. To do that, companies need reliable master data and processes that examine information across shipments, products, and suppliers. In other words, visibility has to come before the goods arrive, not after.
Being Compliant vs. Proving Compliance
Compliance now has two dimensions: doing the work correctly, and demonstrating it. As a result, companies need records and controls that back up their decisions. This matters even more because CBP may see deeper into supply chains than importers do. Therefore, having documentation ready before it’s requested is key.
Back to the Basics: Better Data
Despite the buzz around AI, Hugo points out the industry still hinges on foundational questions. For instance: What is the product? What is it made of? Who makes it? What’s its intended use? Ultimately, clean, structured master data makes it easier to respond as tariffs and enforcement priorities shift. After all, you can’t act on what you can’t see clearly.
Ready to Go Deeper?
Given the episode’s focus on master data and supply-chain visibility, GTC’s Due Diligence course is a natural next step for building the documented processes Hugo describes.
Transcript
Andy Shiles (00:05)
do you know if your entries are
are gonna be worthwhile or if customs is looking at it or, you know, what the heck is customs looking at, or how do we go through all that? I would call this more of a kind of a sidebar str strategy on maybe judging how well you’re doing as an importer or exporter.
Lalo (00:24)
in this day and age of course most if not all of the conversations that we l hear somehow in one way or another will involve software,
Andy Shiles (00:32)
you can’t do anything today without
some software. The old hard copy files and going through it and they’re gonna, you know, look at it and all that. It you get the it’s just too much data, too many changes. I mean, Lalo you’re you’re right on the money on that one.
Lalo (00:48)
Right. Cindy Allen, who hosts another episode or you know, episodes here on our on our podcast, and who is also pretty close to our next guest, Hugo. And Hugo, I’m gonna pronounce your last name here in a little bit, but I hope I don’t pa Pakula or Pakula.
Hugo Pakula (01:06)
Cool I yeah.
Lalo (01:07)
Okay,
Andy Shiles (01:07)
Yeah yeah.
Lalo (01:07)
cool. So I knew it was one of those two. So but anyway, I wanted to say about Cindy, she says that compliance isn’t getting harder.
Because the rules are changing, it’s getting harder because enforcement is getting smarter. So she she she pretty much summarized it there. And and and that’s almost the kind of like the framework to what we are gonna be talking today, to Hugo. Hugo does own his own company, Tru Identity. and he recently put out a press release regarding CBP.
a program that him and that his company and CBP are working on together. We’ll hear a little bit more about that. Although this is not necessarily a show to promote that relationship or anything. We’re more talking about like is customs enforcement generally ch genuinely changing? You know, is it really changing? And if it is, what do importers and brokers need to worry about or need to be prepared with? And and Hugo has a lot of good information on that. He’s put out several
webinars And I’m sure you can see the replays here on on his website. And and we’ll have his contact information for LinkedIn. We’ll have his website and I’ll put a link also to the the press release that they had with CBP on the show notes. But you’ll find quite a bit of content that you’ll be able to listen in and tune in for for Hugo
of some of the content he’s been putting out. But Andy, I don’t know if you have anything else other than walking him
Andy Shiles (02:41)
Well, just
welcome Hugo. This is gonna be a good discussion, but it’s it’s one of those things where your perspective I’m really gonna be interested in in in looking a little bit different. this is gonna be kind of thought provoking. Hopefully you don’t scare the pants off of us.
Hugo Pakula (03:00)
Thankfully I’m not the fearmongerer. I’m not that guy,
Andy Shiles (03:02)
Yeah.
Hugo Pakula (03:02)
which is great. I think there’s always an opportunity and a silver lining. but I will say I spent years and years advising Congress, House Ways and Means, Senate Finance Committee on on trade policy. I think this is a much more friendly environment to talk about what’s going on. So I think that’s a that’s a good place to start.
Andy Shiles (03:19)
Well, excellent, excellent. What’s what’s f so from your perspective here, I guess let me first stop and say true identity. What what what is true identity since that’s your company real quick?
Hugo Pakula (03:34)
Sure. True is a customs compliance automation platform, right? And that means it’s, you know, we don’t think about it as how do we reduce your costs or reduce, you know, allow you to do more. It really is this environment is changing. Cindy said it really well, right? It’s come fundamentally changed from six months ago, a year ago, even from five years ago, right? We saw the e-commerce boom.
We
saw customs change their attitude towards enforcement. It’s not a facilitation environment, and you need something to be able to respond to that, and that is fundamentally what we built. It’s a culmination of my learnings of 10 years of of building other technology for for logistics and and seeing policy with with the government. So there’s a lot in there and I I think there’s a lot to unpack, but I’d love to focus on on policy.
Andy Shiles (04:25)
Well, I I guess one of the questions I’ve got,
Your process and and all that helps you know, obviously customs is using it, but I’m assuming that it’s gonna help an importer work smarter, not harder.
Hugo Pakula (04:39)
Yeah.
It’s a great to say it. know, I think about what’s fundamentally changed is you have, you know, as a as a customs broker, you’ve had this 19 CFR responsible control requirement all this time. But what’s evolved is there’s so much going on and so many changes. How do you make sure you’re doing this responsibly? So actually we look at it like a a 19 CFR automation platform, right? You have this responsible requirement, responsible control and supervision requirement.
That is what this actually enables. And maybe I’d even say it to get down to the sort of root of it, I’d actually say that half of the work of what you have to do now is be compliant. That’s very important, more important than ever, that you’re actually compliant. The other half is that you can demonstrate your compliance, is that you can provably be compliant. And if you can do that and master that at scale, you’re the winning, you’re the winning service provider, right? How do you show an import?
We’re doing that work when you show up to a codly business review as an importer. How do you know if your broker’s really doing their job and making and showing up for you correctly to customers, representing you to customers? Because ultimately they work for you. They don’t work for customs. They’re making sure that you’re meeting your requirements, meeting your compliance requirements so that your goods are delivered on time, you’re not paying extra fees, and you’re not getting penalties and audits on the bad side.
Andy Shiles (06:05)
Well, and and the thing there is demonstrating that you’re compliant, your system hopefully will will identify any red flags, I guess, or something, before there’s a problem. Before, you know, like for example, if a shipment’s coming in, prior to arrival, you’re gonna see some red flags going off going, Hey, as an importer, something’s not matching up or
Something to that effect, right?
Hugo Pakula (06:37)
Yeah, it’s a good way to look at it. I I think an issue has been for the last t easily ten but more years is that you don’t find out about an issue until it’s at the port, sitting with C VP, and now they said we’re holding your cargo, right?
Andy Shiles (06:49)
Right. And you’re
reacting to it rather than responding to something before like an advanced notice. And that’s the thing too, is that customs is looking at you and using this. And if there’s information that’s and it’s this is what I call the i i it is vital that information is synchronized between the bill of lading, the commercial invoice, any special declarations on if there’s a conflict in that.
Customs is looking at what’s being presented to them and it’s gonna identify, hey, there’s a problem. Values don’t match up or country of origins don’t match up or descriptions don’t match up. you said it was a widget A and it comes in as widget B and on the paperwork, w which is it, right?
Hugo Pakula (07:37)
Yeah, and you know, you see things like this and I
I think people feel this adversarial fear with C V P, but actually C V
Andy Shiles (07:43)
Mm-hmm.
Hugo Pakula (07:44)
P have sort of the same desire. They’d love to be able to tell you that something is wrong in advance. They would prefer that certainly fraudulent goods, but also that incorrect filings were fixed way in advance of the goods arriving because it just fills up your CFS. You’ve got a frame station that just is filled with cr filled with stuff that could have been fixed in advance. and and they would like to solve this problem too. And actually that’s what they’re doing is they’re
they’re leveraging technology now and partners who have this data earlier and are able to say, everything’s good here. Right? We’ve already done these checks extensively. and I I really like Cindy’s way of looking at this as well, which is the they have thirty years of history.
Andy Shiles (08:28)
Mm-hmm.
Hugo Pakula (08:29)
They’ve seen this before. You and prom I promise you’re not doing anything that special. They have seen it before. Right. And so they would love if you could prove that, you know, prove that work way earlier and and demonstrate your compliance.
Andy Shiles (08:43)
Well, with all that being said, I guess we’ve kind of set the the stage here that customs is using it. You need to be, you know, again, working smarter, not harder. so the point being is that I again utilizing tools that will improve, you know, well in a sense it improves your productivity. And I say that from a standpoint of catching, you know, discrepancies well before there’s a problem so that you have a chance to fix it as an importer.
But all that to say, what do you believe that the industry, as far as the importing community, let’s look at it that way, what should the industry be focusing on then? What do you see?
Hugo Pakula (09:29)
Yeah. Y you know, I think the hardest part is that we’ve been inundated with things you could do, right? There are so many options. Everybody’s
Andy Shiles (09:37)
Mm-hmm. Yes. It’s like information overload.
Hugo Pakula (09:41)
totally. And it is drinking from a fire hose. and so when we talk about what you can
what you can really do or where you should be focusing. I think there is a lot of focus on on using technology. That’s like the talk, right? We talked about at the beginning at the top of the episode, right? You can’t avoid the technology conversation now. but maybe that’s for good reason. and I think that that’s this pressure, mounting pressure of 10 years of of of more and more expectations from customers.
more and more expectations of of shareholders in in importing companies, right? and so when you talk about what you can do, I think you have to first recognize the environment has changed, right? We’re not in a we’re not in an environment where C VP
Not doesn’t care about the entries, but they’re looking more closely than ever. And so actually talk about what to do. The the answer here is being able to be provably compliant is the is the at least the trend, if not the the answer to this question. it’s not about maybe just doing more. If you focus on only adding the ability to do more, more entries, more shipments, you’re actually multiplying your burden, right? By adding more, you come out the other side with more.
More audits, more more penalties. And so the most important thing today is that you are able to get to more compliance. And the answer to that is master data. It’s
great quality master data.
Andy Shiles (11:15)
Well, with that, there was an executive order that was issued regarding customs enforcement. For the listeners, it’s executive order fourteen four eleven or one four four one one. What about that? What’s what y obviously from the president’s office, he’s obviously sanctioned a an effort to for enforcement.
What are the focuses of that exe executive order and what’s the impact both on the I guess the customs brokers but the importers as well?
Hugo Pakula (11:55)
Yeah, so that executive order laid out a timeline. basically it it installed a forty-five day, ninety-day, one hundred and eighty day, and one year milestone where different agencies need to do certain things. And so we’ve we’re just about to we’re just approaching the ninety-day milestone of September first, which is where CPP and DHS are required to provide
Revised
penalty and mitigation strategies. In fact, we’ve already seen this come into effect where you can now only mitigate penalties to 50%. Right? That strategy is now, I don’t want to say completely defunct, but it is no longer can no longer be sort of this crutch for importers who say, well, at least if we get in trouble, we can mitigate. Mitigation is very limited. And what they’re doing even further, I’ve actually got my eye on the
30 date, which is is where this complete shift in enforcement is happening again. So if you felt it already, what’s coming on that on the November 30 date is that instead of looking at an individual shipment or an individual product for what it’s what it appears to be, they’re actually looking at you as a company. They’re saying, how does your import history, or how does your, you know, if you’re a brokerage, what are your entries look like as a whole? And so you can no longer get away with one erroneous shipment. It’s not really one.
There are actually that pattern exists everywhere. So if you’re not auditing and reorditing and re-auditing and setting up your assistance to do that, you you’re going to come under the enforcement enforcement
Andy Shiles (13:26)
Okay. W how long is this going to go on? I mean, it it this is a scenario where it looks like the facilitation is dead and gone kind of a thing and it’s now into enforcement. But business has got to go on. So I I mean, how do you handle this? Is especially if you’re a small or medium sized company, you can be scared to death to to in looking at some of this.
Hugo Pakula (13:55)
You know, I always say for small and medium, I actually think one of the the tricks is to continue
to act small. You can do things that the big guys can’t. Don’t think about this like you have to meet the same technology burden, right? CBP is the largest enterprise in all this whole discussion, right? They’ve got 60,000
Andy Shiles (14:10)
Right.
Hugo Pakula (14:11)
employees, they’ve also got three and a half billion dollars to to deploy new solutions. You don’t have three no one has three and a half billion, even the largest companies for this. So the answer is everybody sort of falls in their bucket, which is
You need to measure your risk, understand it, right? I I hear a lot of board board discussions going on where they don’t even care, they don’t even prioritize it. So you’ve got to make the case that this matters because you’ve probably already started feeling it. And if we’re just at the beginning of this ramp up, so it is the best time that people at the at the forefront of of compliance started solving this problem six months ago. The the second best time to do it is right now.
Andy Shiles (14:53)
Mm-hmm. Well, I guess the the impact of this would be an increase in in examinations or CF twenty eights and twenty nines, or what are you seeing in this? Is there a slower process in the clearance or is are more entries getting processed and they’re focusing on problems?
Hugo Pakula (15:15)
through all of this the volume isn’t going anywhere, right? Volume’s coming. We’ve gotta we have to be able to handle it. And
The I guess the answer to
that question is really that CBP have been able to narrow their focus to find the right stuff where they you they’re actually doing almost the exact same amount of audits. We looked at it’s up something like 11%, but their results are up about 5,000%, right? Over the same period. So they’re not doing more auditing, they’re just finding it faster and finding it better. And so it’s a lot more.
Are that really they’re able to look at everything. And that’s the hard part for an importer is well, hold on, we have hundreds of shipments, hundreds of shipments, thousands of shipments. How are we supposed to look at you? Probably can’t look at everything. So learning from who’s doing it the best, which I think is arguably CVP at the moment.
It it is you need a system that is looking and supporting your people to to action only the most important items.
Lalo (16:24)
And and that’s a good point, Hugo, because part of the argument that has been made and even Cindy has said it before and others on our episodes and and even when we go to conferences, the point is that part of what part of what Cindy said even, you know, that that’s that C VP the tools that they’re using is are getting smarter. The thing is that you may be at a hundred percent doing everything right and you may be doing following
all the procedures, you might be filing your USMCAs correctly, you may be doing everything perfectly, right? The problem is that because of all the tools that CBP may have access to now, is that they might be vetting or not vetting, but they may be looking at someone in your supply chain. And unbeknownst to you, they might be wrong, right? Because there might be several tiers down your supply chain. Something may be wrong on their process.
But because CBP knows that you they touch, you touch their supply chain, they’ll go after you to not necessarily to find something wrong, but to ask you questions, correct? And and that that’s where that’s where it’s gonna become a challenge for you to keep up because you do need to make sure that you do have those tools and those that compliance in order so that if they do come knocking, you’re like, well, here it is,
Hugo Pakula (17:46)
I I think I think that’s where people feel this idea of the black box with CBP. It’s like, we don’t know what they’re gonna bring to us. We don’t even know the issue. We’ve looked at our first tier supply, we’ve looked at our suppliers, our manufacturer seems to be compliant, but you don’t know where they’re getting their raw materials to to sell you something, right? You have no idea. And so I think considering that CBP has what feels like to me at least an unlimited budget. Three and half billion dollars is is a ri an unfathomable sum of of money.
to that
advanced, like the most advanced solutions, where they’re now so far ahead of the industry when they used to be from behind. We all used to feel like, gee, we have our
data together, like I’m at I’m I’m looking at everything. I think I’m doing well. We’re not getting audits. We’re not getting but
CBP were behind. Now they’re so ahead with technology. you sort of have no choice but to be looking and analyzing the data the same way they are, at least learning that methodology and listening to the people who know CBP’s methodology is a is another thing. A piece of advice I’d give is they are working with partners, listen to those partners. That’s the point, right?
Andy Shiles (18:56)
Well that that’s what I
was gonna say. Who should importers be benchmarking off of? Who’s doing it right?
Hugo Pakula (19:03)
It’s a really unfortunately a very hard question to answer. I think the I do think when I I sort of tongue in cheek, but I do think CDP is doing it right, right? They found a way to deliver results for the policy mandate that they’ve been given. And now our job is to respond, just like you guys said, the whole point of of Global Trading Center, right? It’s what do we do now that it’s here? and so when you think of the the best of the best, they are building, they are, they’re cleaning their data.
So that you can actually do this analysis very similar to what C VP is doing. How do we store? Not just maybe where do we store, but how do we store even that data? Like an example would be you’ve got your 99 codes, you know, you’re storing them and they’re up to date, and then the tariffs change. Well, now your data technically isn’t clean. Now you’ve got to do it all from scratch, you’ve got to reanalyze your tariff applicability.
You’ve got to reanalyze stacking and sequencing and all that stuff. Instead, if you say, well, what is this product made of? Is it does it have steel? Does it have aluminum? If you can say yes it has steel and yes it has aluminum, well then recalculating 99s using a modern system is actually very easy, right? Because it can analyze the policy and it can and that’s what CBP is doing. They’re saying, Well, we know something about your supply chain that you don’t know. The actual underlying factor, the material composition, the
manufacturer that’s involved in the production, where you’re getting your raw materials, even if it’s unbeknownst to you, and then they’re calculating what they expect an entry to look like. And they’re saying, well there’s a discrepancy here. Something’s wrong. Or there’s a violation of some, you know, an anti-dumping countvailing duty or a forced labor or something else. But I think for the people trying to do it right, it’s about saying we have limited resources, CBP have limited resources. They have technology, do we have the right technology?
is a piece of it and do we have the right process and do we have the right people to be able to do that analysis at scale?
Lalo (21:03)
I I guess another way of asking Andy’s question about who’s doing it right, maybe, maybe let’s go back and kind of like reverse engineer it. And let me ask you this way. when you go into a client, a broker and and or an importer, and you look at their process before you even automate it or anything like that, what do you see that might indicate, okay.
They might have a compliance issue or they’re doing compliance correctly. And here’s how we can help, regardless if they’re gonna use your system or not. But like what you know what I’m saying? Like, like how do you how can you improve that w be it manually or through the software, whatever the case might be, because of what you know that CBP or what you may suspect or what you have seen that CBP is using on automation.
Hugo Pakula (21:55)
I I think about I think about coverage. I think that you’ve got a volume of things coming you know, that you’re dealing with every day. How do you make sure you really have your eyes on everything? And so I always started the process, you know, to your point, regardless of us in our technology, I think about I l I I watch what they’re doing. I I’ve sat, you know, next to an entry writer for a broker or even with the importer doing the work.
And I can see that they’ve got all this reactive work to be managing every day. And what’s hard is you need the time to do the proactive work. That’s what fundamentally nowadays moves the needle. If you can make the time for that, it’s so valuable.
Andy Shiles (22:41)
Hugo, let me jump in. I I noticed something that you one of your LinkedIn posts that you’d put in, and there was a survey apparently done that almost half of senior executive, no, excuse me, two thirds of senior executives of companies say that compliance, import compliance, is very important. However,
only twenty two percent of the companies responded saying that the that company was adequately funding the compliance function. To that point, where do you think companies maybe they’re over investing in a certain area or they’re under investing and you know they need to reset their priorities a little bit.
Hugo Pakula (23:36)
Yeah.
Andy Shiles (23:37)
That that’s a big question though.
Hugo Pakula (23:39)
It is. I firstly I think it’s it makes me sad just to put that out.
feel like I you know we meet these professionals every day at at conferences in in meetings and everybody in this industry cares about their work they just want to do their best work and they know
this stuff they know the subject matter but the business doesn’t prioritize it and I think part of that comes down to I think the headlines hurt that right I think they read AIPA you know is ineligible and then they don’t get into the details. We want to focus on the details. That’s what makes me excited as a as a trade nerd right
But when you think about where they’ve spent money, and I I think a lot of executives, but also even trade compliance teams, have spent money on technology that led them down a bad road before. Right? We’ve all been there and had the fatigue. Now we have the fatigue of technology. It’s failed, the implementation failed, or something. So when I think about why that happens, I think there’s some historical, you have to look backwards. I also think that people are spending money potentially in the wrong place. And that’s why, say, a compliance professional.
professional says, they’re not at it, they’re they’re not prioritizing it right. And that’s because they’re the executive leadership, I can say this as an executive, are not looking at
What’s coming. They’re really looking at what’s here today. Right? People focus on the quarter, on the ma on the month, sometimes on the year, but they’re not in the weeds of these CSMS messages at 4 30 p.m. on a Friday. They’re not in the weeds of implementing this work. And so they’re saying we want more volume. That’s the wrong answer. The answer is
it enforcement is coming like we’ve never really seen honestly never seen before. And if we’re not preparing,
we’re going to pay for it later. Right? We are, it’s a it’s a known quantity now, we’re going to pay for it later.
Andy Shiles (25:29)
Well, and and and you’re hitting a good
point is that look at where customs has changed today versus you know, even a couple of years ago, five years ago, ten, fifteen years ago, there’s a dramatic difference. And like you said, in that time frame, customs has gone from behind the industry to leapfrogging and well ahead of the industry.
Where do you see customs going, say within the next five years? How do you see customs how are they shaping their future and and how are they gonna be interacting with the the community?
Hugo Pakula (26:07)
Yeah, I’ll I’ll start with answering that in the last six months we saw well, beginning of the year we saw a ruling come down from a from CPP on on AI
HQ seven two two, and it sent this shock wave through the industry that I I think is we is a little strange personally, because I look at it as a compliance
junky and I’d say all that that ruling said was customs business is customs business and it must be done by a customs broker. And to me that’s not a shock. And I actually think that’s a great thing. I think that’s what the law says. I think that’s how it should be. I think that puts the the licensed customs broker in a in a in a seat of power as well. They they they they’re supposed to be trusted. but I also think that when you look at what’s coming and how C BP is approaching us, they’re saying
I
think they are, and the way I see it is that they’re looking at the future of responsible supervision and control, and there is a definition change that has to come. When you read 19 CFR, it says that you are responsible for the personnel in your team, in your in your company. But the problem with that is now we have technology doing work for us. And actually, 19 CFR doesn’t mention technology once, right? Not once. So I think part of this long-term
Impact is a re is a reshuffle or or maybe an updated definition of what it means to run a brokerage responsibly, what it means to exercise reasonable care as an importer responsibly, and that is in partnership with technology. It’s just another tool like Excel chain, overhaul the way that we all do our work. AI is probably doing the same thing, but it’s not replacing anything. And so when you look at the long-term impact, I think about it as
The entry is becoming very commoditized. We see that through the price of the entry, price has come down so significantly, while at the same time the work has gone up. And that’s totally backwards. So what are they trying to do? They’re trying to give the licensed customs broker maybe the power again. We are supposed to be doing proactive work. We are supposed to be supporting our business partners, our business executives, or if
if
you’re a broker supporting your customer in being strategic and looking ahead and getting away from issues. If you’re just thinking about today, you can’t get there. And that’s what CBP actually wants to support, even if sometimes it doesn’t feel like it.
I have a maybe a hot take about this, which is I I really believe that this industry in many ways is going back to basics. Is that
Andy Shiles (28:53)
Mm-hmm.
Hugo Pakula (28:54)
so much of what matters now is what mattered ten plus years ago, where it was, what is the product? What is it made of? Who is involved in making it and what’s its intended use? If you can answer those questions again as an importer, let alone getting that information from your broker, you are so empowered for success.
Today?
It is so back to basics. And the answer here is that if you could store that correctly, if you have that data and you’re saving
Andy Shiles (29:20)
A yeah
Hugo Pakula (29:20)
it, that master data for your products is the key to success, not only for the importer on their own, but for that relationship between you and the broker. If you have that in place, you’re so ready for success.
Andy Shiles (29:34)
Hugo, I think you
hit something right there that is vitally important.
ideally, if I have a piece of paper that has the commercial invoice and everything in it, it has everything there.
that as a broker, I could pick it up as an entry writer look at it, and I don’t have to go look at a database. Everything comes through it. Now if it’s electronic, it could go into the entry system. But then the other side of that is then you have the software that double checks it to say, is everything right? What do you think about that approach?
Hugo Pakula (30:05)
Yeah, I I see that people
Maybe understand the idea, right? They see this North Star of what you described, but the path is really unclear. And often the answer feels like the business answer, which is we have to be faster, or we have to be more efficient. And if we’re more efficient, everything else will resolve. We need that foundation. And I actually look at this through three what seem like confounding variables, but they can work together: is speed, accuracy, and control.
control and those levers you know you increase speed your accuracy should go down in theory right you increase you know you
When you do that, then your control is low lower because your your accuracy is lower. So maybe a way to think about it is you have to be able to move those levers together, and the only way to do that is to build the foundation. When you have that foundation in place, speed will get better in a huge way. You will reduce repeat work. I see people auditing and then reorditing and then re auditing, or QCing quality control again and again and again, but still getting failures at customs. And how how
we
how do you resolve that problem? Right?
You’re gonna sit there and not sort of not show results for a long time. You know, I I really think there are answers to to these problems that can take three to six months, not three to five years. And we’re not on a three to five year timeline. CBP is looking now, right now.
Andy Shiles (31:42)
What would you say? What would be the key takeaway as we finish up here?
for an executive, you’re talking to the leadership here, what is the key action that they need to walk away from this show?
Hugo Pakula (31:55)
Ultimately, compliance is a lever for growth.
It is not a cost center. That’s I they don’t seem to understand it when it’s said as you know 99s and impact and dollars and penalties, it just doesn’t resonate. The opportunity that sits in front of you is that you and your competitors all have to send your entries to CBP. Everybody’s can can you know got the same problem. And so the advantage, in fact, a competitive advantage, is that if you’re an importer, you can be doing impact analysis, strategic recommendations.
recommendations for sourcing, forecasting, right? That’s super valuable when it’s done, when it’s prioritized, and that doesn’t even maybe need more budget. But to have the time to be proactive, that can take a little bit of budget.
Andy Shiles (32:42)
Yeah.
Well, listen, we appreciate you. and and Lilo as we go into this again. I you know, this is one of those things where this is an outstanding discussion, I think, and something is important for companies to take into account.
Well folks, we again appreciate your listenership. Like us, share us. We really need you to to take some action there and to to keep us going. It’s we’re really fortunate, and people seem to be really catching on to Simply Trade. So we asked for you to continue that. And with that, thank you so much, Hugo. Well, everybody have a great day
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