France · Switzerland · International
International trade compliance, treated as an engineering problem
Customs, export control and sanctions are not solved with a legal memo. They are solved with accurate data, controls that are actually performed, and decisions you can trace. That is what we install.
Most industrial companies discover their customs exposure when an audit lands, and their sanctions exposure when a bank blocks a payment. In both cases the information that would have prevented it already existed inside the company: it simply had no owner.
FC&TRADE is an independent international trade compliance advisory. We work with supply chain, legal and compliance leadership in industrial companies across France, Switzerland and internationally, on five areas that in practice form a single question: what you ship, to whom, under which regime, and with what evidence.
Our stance
We provide no customs clearance services and resell no software. That is not a commercial limitation: it is what allows us to check declarants' work, evaluate tools with no stake in the outcome, and tell you when a spend is not justified.
Practice areas
Five areas, one operational decision
Whether a shipment leaves, under which regime, and whether you can justify it three years later.
Customs compliance
Tariff classification, preferential and non-preferential origin, customs valuation, special procedures, post-clearance audit readiness.
View practice →02Export control
Dual-use classification under Regulation (EU) 2021/821, ECCN and US exposure, Swiss regime, licensing, internal compliance programmes.
View practice →03Sanctions & embargoes
Restricted party screening, indirect ownership beyond the 50% threshold, no-re-export clauses, circumvention red flags, asset freezes.
View practice →04AEO certification
Self-assessment, gap remediation, application file, on-site audit preparation, then status maintenance. EU and Switzerland.
View practice →05Data & automation
Single product master, ERP-embedded controls, reconciliation of declarations lodged in your name, dashboards and audit trail.
View practice →→Online assessment
Fifteen questions, five minutes, a score per area and your priority friction points. No sign-up required.
Start the assessment →Method
Clarify, secure, equip
Clarify
We start from your actual declaration data over twelve months, not from a description of your processes. The gap between the two is usually the engagement.
Prioritise
Not everything matters equally. We quantify exposure by topic and say what can wait — including when that shrinks our own scope.
Secure
Handle the critical items: corrections, BTIs, origin files, licences, screening, authorisations.
Equip
Procedures embedded in existing processes, training for exposed functions, handover to a named owner. The framework must outlive our departure.
Resources
Recent publications
Tariff classification: the ten errors that recur in every audit
Ten error mechanisms observed item after item, with what causes them, what they cost, and the control step that stops them recurring.
EU 21st sanctions package: what changes for exporters
Adopted 23 July 2026. New export bans, extension to third-country entities, notification duties: what to update in your procedures.
How to become an Authorised Economic Operator
The five criteria, a realistic timeline, the point where most applications fail, and what to prepare before touching the self-assessment questionnaire.
Customs audit: the 7 questions that reveal the real friction points
Seven questions to ask internally. If three of them have no written answer, you have found your action plan.
Who we work for
Our usual counterparts are mid-sized industrial companies — mechanical engineering, electronics, instrumentation, specialty chemicals, production equipment, medical devices — that export regularly, whose customs function is one or two people, and whose exposure has grown faster than their organisation.
We also work with groups that already have a compliance function, on bounded topics: rebuilding a classification master, preparing a certification, reviewing a sanctions framework before internal audit, or a second opinion on a contested position.
What we do not do
- We provide no customs clearance services and do not replace your customs representative.
- We are not a law firm: we provide neither regulated legal advice nor litigation representation. We routinely work with specialist law firms and know when to refer you.
- We resell no software and take no vendor commission.
- We do not produce a report without an action plan owned by someone.
Frequently asked questions
What is customs compliance?
Customs compliance is the set of arrangements by which a company ensures that its import and export operations comply with the applicable regulation, and is able to demonstrate it. It rests mainly on three declared data points — tariff classification, origin and customs value — on the validity of the authorisations and procedures used, and on the traceability of decisions. It differs from customs clearance, the declarative act itself, usually entrusted to a customs representative: the representative declares what the company sends, but responsibility for the content of the declaration remains the company's.
What is the difference between customs, export control and sanctions?
They are three distinct regimes that frequently apply to the same shipment. Customs regulation determines what you must declare and pay. Export control determines whether goods, software or technology may leave the territory given their technical characteristics and destination — independently of their customs status. Sanctions determine who you may deal with and what you may deliver to certain destinations, independently of the first two. A product can be entirely free from a customs standpoint, not listed as dual-use, and still prohibited to a given customer because that customer is owned by a designated entity.
How does a first contact work?
Through a thirty-minute conversation, free of charge and without commitment, in which we seek to understand your situation and give a clear opinion: what exposes you now, what can wait, and what is outside our remit. If an engagement is warranted we send a costed proposal with defined scope, timeline and deliverables. If it is not, we say so.