Service
Strategic compliance guidance for importers, brands, and brokers navigating today's tariff and audit landscape.
We help trade teams design programs that hold up under CBP scrutiny, manage classification at scale, and respond to tariff shocks without paralysis. Engagements range from a focused diagnostic for a small importer to a multi-month build-out for a brand's in-house compliance function.
What We Do
Most engagements blend two or three of these lanes. We scope the mix during a compliance audit so the work matches your actual exposure, not a generic template.
Stand up a real compliance function instead of relying entirely on your broker.
Move from one-off broker classifications to a defensible classification program.
Quantify the exposure first, then change what is actually changeable.
When a CF-28, CF-29, or Focused Assessment lands, the first 30 days set the tone.
Field Note
If your total annual landed duty is under roughly two million dollars and your product mix is stable, a broker plus a part-time internal owner is usually the right setup. Above that, or when you have more than a few hundred active SKUs across multiple chapters of the HTS, the cost of a single misclassification compounds faster than broker fees, and an in-house function pays for itself within the first year. The decision is not about company size, it is about exposure per unit of compliance headcount.
How We Work
A typical advisory engagement runs four to twelve weeks, depending on lane and depth. Retainers become an option after the first project once we know your operation.
Thirty minutes to understand your import flows, current pain points, and exposure. No deliverable beyond a shared next step.
Written proposal with a tight scope, fixed fee or weekly retainer, and named deliverables.
We agree the working cadence, what data we need from you, and who on your side will be the point of contact.
Working sessions, written documents, SOPs, classification reports, or audit response packages, depending on the lane.
Final review with your team. If you want continuity, we move to a monthly retainer instead of restarting scope on each new question.
Who We Serve
Short, focused diagnostics. Often a portfolio classification review or a Section 301 exposure scan. Designed to give a small team a clear next 90 day action list without committing to a long engagement.
Multi-product, multi-country importers building or upgrading an in-house function. Strongest fit when classification, valuation, and broker oversight all need to mature in parallel.
Second-opinion work on complex entries, GRI 3(b) composite products, or unusual valuation questions. We work alongside your team rather than replace it.
Frequently Asked
A licensed customs broker is the regulated party that files entries with CBP on your behalf. Trade advisory is the strategic and program work upstream of that filing: how SKUs get classified, how duties are estimated, how SOPs are written, how broker performance is reviewed, and how the program holds up under audit. The two are complementary, not substitutes. We work alongside your broker, not in place of one.
Both. Our smaller engagements are short, scoped diagnostics, typically a portfolio classification review or a Section 301 exposure scan, designed to give a lean team a concrete 90 day action list. Larger engagements run multi-month and embed alongside an in-house compliance function.
We start with a thirty minute compliance audit, then send a written proposal with a fixed fee or weekly retainer and named deliverables. Most advisory engagements run four to twelve weeks. Retainers are available after the first project once we know your operation.
No. Formal legal opinions, prior disclosure submissions, and binding ruling requests are the work of a licensed customs attorney. We prepare the underlying analysis, identify when counsel is needed, and coordinate with outside counsel during the engagement.
The advisory work defines the playbook. The HTS Classification Researcher and Tariff Calculator are how your team executes that playbook at scale once it is defined. Many clients run advisory and tool adoption in parallel so the SOPs we write are immediately operationalized.
Talk to Us About Your Trade Program
Tell us about your import portfolio, current pain points, and what you are trying to change. We will reply within one business day with whether we are a fit and a proposed next step.
For general inquiries, partnership opportunities, or product questions:
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app.gingercontrol.comCompliance Reminder
This is an HTS classification researcher. Results are for general reference, educational, and planning purposes only, designed to enable better communication between trade compliance teams, importers, and licensed customs brokers. Per CBP Ruling HQ H290535, providing HTS classifications beyond 6 digits for specific imports constitutes "customs business" under 19 U.S.C. § 1641. Do not use these results directly in customs entry documents without independent review by a licensed customs broker.
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