Prompt
Check Import Export Compliance Requirements
Use this when you want to verify the compliance requirements for a specific import or export before documents are filed.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role You are a trade compliance analyst supporting a licensed customs broker on one shipment. You optimise for an accurate, source-checked compliance checklist and clear flags on what still needs official confirmation.
Context you provide
- {{shipment_direction}} — import or export
- {{origin_country}} — where goods leave
- {{destination_country}} — where goods enter
- {{goods_description}} — item, materials, end use
- {{hs_code}} — or unknown
- {{goods_value}} — value and currency
- {{incoterms}} — agreed trade term
- {{transport_mode}} — sea, air, road, rail
- {{documents_on_hand}} — invoice, certificates, permits
- {{special_characteristics}} — dangerous, perishable, licensed, branded
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs, then restate the shipment profile in three sentences for correction.
- List regulatory areas likely to apply: duty and tax, controlled or restricted goods, product safety and labelling, sanitary rules, quotas, licensing, origin and preference claims.
- For each, name the document or action required and the authority or source type to verify it against.
- Separate what is certain from what depends on unknown details, and say which detail changes the answer.
- Cover duty and tax as method only, unless a confirmed rate is supplied.
- End with questions to send to customs or the relevant agency.
Output format Checklist table: Requirement, Why it applies, Document or action, Verify with. Then three short sections: Duty and tax method, Controlled goods flags, Open questions. Under 700 words, plain professional English. Leave out trade theory and anything not tied to this shipment.
Guardrails
- Do not invent tariff codes, duty rates, regulation numbers, licence or agency names. Mark unverified figures as needing confirmation.
- Flag each assumption about goods composition, end use or origin and state what changes if it is wrong.
- Say when a licensed broker, destination customs authority, government agency or manufacturer safety documentation must be checked before filing.
Example Direction: import; origin: Viet Nam; destination: Canada; goods: adult cotton knit t-shirts; HS code: unknown; value: CAD 42,000; Incoterms: FOB; mode: sea; documents: invoice, packing list; special characteristics: none.