Is Trade Compliance Even Manageable?

Reframing a Common Problem: Reporting Structure for Trade Compliance

Whether you are creating a new in-house trade compliance function or evaluating an established one, there is no getting around the perpetual question: Where should Trade Compliance report?

The answer depends on the business. Operational realities, departmental needs, available staff, budgets, and other limitations unique to your company can practically make the choice for you. Where Trade Compliance is a dedicated function, it typically settles into Logistics or Legal, or an equivalent department. Other times, fragmented trade compliance responsibilities hover between departments such as Finance, Procurement, Operations, and Sales, with ad hoc support from third parties. Only in rare cases does the function stand alone. The diversity of possible configurations—many of which could work—is unsurprising. After all, which department is in the best position to accommodate a function that involves