The United States has a stable economy that produces high quality technology goods that are shipped around the world. Enterprises and private manufacturers of the United States export industrial and medical equipment, cars, spare parts for cars, agricultural machinery, textile products, clothes of famous brands to Ukraine by sea vessels.
Terms of shipping from the United States to Ukraine
There are regular linear routes between the USA and Ukraine from major American seaports. The average distance at which the nearest US port is removed from Ukraine is five thousand kilometers. In order to deliver products from distant US cities, enterprises need to deliver goods of their own production to the port by road or rail within one to two days.
- Thousands of sea 40-foot containers are filled with consolidated shipments and form a common large batch of containers from different US cities.
- As they accumulate, ships with export goods are sent to Ukraine.
- There are no exact delivery dates. For various reasons, they may be detained at the port at the stage of processing customs documents, when submitting a container and verifying shippers’ numbers.
- Depending on weather conditions, sea cargoes are subject to force majeure.
For goods from the USA sent to Ukraine, it is necessary to fill in the AESDirect declaration. The ITN number from the bill of lading confirms that the declaration made for the export of goods is stored in the AES database. The number is a kind of code that stores the complete information about the product required by the US customs service.
Documents for shipping goods from the USA
The price packing list is a complete list of the shipment, batch, parcel, indicating the cost of each unit of goods sent. In the absence of an invoice, an estimated packing list is provided, in which they write the price of commodity units in US dollars at market value; indicate weight, appearance description and condition. Before shipment, the US port control service has the right to request photocopies of the passport, visa, tax certificate. Import to Ukraine is regulated by the presence of an Invoice in the form of a pro forma. If a Packing List has been drawn up by US Customs, then this document will be converted into a Proforma Invoice.
The second document for the carriage of goods by sea is a sea bill of lading indicating the route and weight of the cargo, the name of the consignor, consignee, and other data. A bill of lading is an analogue of a bill of lading for road transport. As soon as the cargo has entered the ship, the carrier issues a bill of lading.
Invoice for sea cargo accepted for transportation is a document containing important information about the goods being transported:
- weight;
- volume;
- physical and chemical properties that affect the conditions of transportation;
- Price in USD.
A Packing List is attached to the invoice, but most firms attach a receipt for the purchased goods, indicating the prices for each product item.
Among the additional documents that may be needed to send goods from the US to Ukraine:
- veterinary certificate;
- document confirming the absence of harm to health (Health Certificate);
- document indicating the origin of the goods – the address of the manufacturer;
- packing list;
- certificate of the phytosanitary service;
- declaration of the degree of danger of the goods, if the goods are classified as dangerous;
- certificate of fumigation – disinfection of goods and shipping containers, super containers.
Delivery of goods by sea from the USA to Ukraine is a popular and effective solution for the development of market relations between the two countries.