Introduction

Starting an import business is a goal of more than thousands of merchants and businessman. Like an export business, import business is also very profitable business, if an importer proceeds with the right strategies. However, the long term success and profitability of an import business greatly depends on the importer’s knowledge and understanding about the international market and foreign market analysis.

Today, importing goods from abroad has becomes a big business. Everything from beverages to cars--and a staggering list of other products that one might have never imagined has now become the part of the global import. Millions of products are bought, sold, represented and distributed somewhere in the world on a daily basis.

Reasons for Import

There are number of supporting reasons why import business and services is growing at such a fast rate:-

Availability: An individual or business man or an importer needs to import because there are certain things that he can’t grow or manufacture in his home country. For example Bananas in Alaska, Mahogany Lumber in Maine and Ball Park franks in France.

Cachet: A lot of things, like caviar and champagne, pack more cachet, more of an "image," if they're imported rather than home-grown. Think Scandinavian furniture, German beer, French perfume, Egyptian cotton. It all seems classier when it comes from distant place.

Price: Price factor is also an important reason for import of products. Some products are cheaper when imported from foreign country. For example Korean toys, Taiwanese electronics and Mexican clothing, to rattle off a few, can often be manufactured or assembled in foreign factories for far less money than if they were made on the domestic country.

Import in India

The rising middle income groups of consumers in India and their increasing levels on expenditure on various products has resulted a faster rising demand of the Indian import business. Major imports of India include cereals, edible oils, machineries, fertilizers and petroleum products. Total import from India estimated to be around US$187.9 billion. India is also a bulk importer of edible oil, sugar, pulp and paper, newsprint, crude rubber and Iron and steel.

Import Regulatory Body

In India, all the activities related to import are handled by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), a government organisation that also controls the export business in India. DGFT and all its regional offices work under the Ministry Commerce and Industries, Department of Commerce, Government of India. All the procedure and policies in matter related to the import is announced by the DGFT through its notification, appendices and forms.

Table of Contents

Starting Exports

• Chapter 1 Starting Export Introduction

• Chapter 2 Basic Planning For Export
• Chapter 3 Identifying Products For Export
• Chapter 4 Market Selection
• Chapter 5 SWOT Analysis
• Chapter 6 Registration of Exporters
• Chapter 7 Export License
• Chapter 8 Myths About Exporting
• Chapter 9 Export Sales Leads
• Chapter 10 Exporting Product Samples
• Chapter 11 Export Pricing And Costing
• Chapter 12 Understanding Foreign Exchange Rates
• Chapter 13 Appointing A Sales Agents
• Chapter 14 Export Risks Management
• Chapter 15 Packaging And Labeling Of Goods
• Chapter 16 Inspection Certificates And Quality Control
• Chapter 17 Export Documents
• Chapter 18 Custom Procedure For Export
• Chapter 19 Invisible Export
• Chapter 20 Export To SAARC
• Chapter 21 Export To CIS
• Chapter 22 Organisations Supporting Exporters

Starting Imports

• Chapter 1 Starting Import Introduction
• Chapter 2 Preliminaries for Starting Import Business
• Chapter 3 Registration of Importers
• Chapter 4 Guidelines And Rules for Import
• Chapter 5 Selecting The Overseas Exporter
• Chapter 6 Import License
• Chapter 7 Import Trade Governing Bodies
• Chapter 8 Import of Samples
• Chapter 9 Finalizing The Terms of Import
• Chapter 10 Import Duties
• Chapter 11 Import Risks
• Chapter 12 Import Incentives under Special Schemes
• Chapter 13 Methods of Payment in Import Trade
• Chapter 14 Import of Personal Baggage
• Chapter 15Import of Gifts
• Chapter 16 Impor of Cars Vehicle Commerical and Non Commercial
• Chapter 17 Import of Gold And Silver by NRI
• Chapter 19 Custom Clearance of Imported Goods
• Chapter 18 Import of Drugs And MedicineImport of Drugs And Medicine
• Chapter 20 Import of Scrap And Waste Products
• Chapter 21 Import Laptops And Computers
• Chapter 22Import Dos And Donts

Exports Finance

• Chapter 1 - Payment Methods In Export Import
• Chapter 2 - Payment Collection Against Bills
• Chapter 3 - Letter Of Credit (L/c)
• Chapter 4 - Trade Documents
• Chapter 5 - Pre Shipment Trade Finance
• Chapter 6 - Post Shipment Finance
• Chapter 7 - Forfeiting Factoring
• Chapter 8 - Bank Guarantees
• Chapter 9 - Transport Risk
• Chapter 10 - Contract Credit Risk
• Chapter 11 -Country Political Risk
• Chapter 12 -Currency Risk
• Chapter 13 - Export Import (Exim) Policy
• Chapter 14 - Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA)
• Chapter 15 - Fedai Guidlines