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You can still ask the supplier for the certificate, wait for the health resolution or change the shipping date.
Services · 08 / Trade compliance
Trade compliance
Customs is not the only one that authorizes an import. Depending on what you bring in, you may need the approval of SAG, SEREMI de Salud, ISP or SEC. And those permits are not processed when the cargo arrives: they are processed before shipping.
We review what your product requires at the start of the operation, not when the container is already accruing storage.
The real problem
There are two ways to find out that your goods needed a permit.
With the cargo at the port
The authority refuses entry, the container starts to accrue demurrage and the shipping line charges for every day. The options are bad: wait for weeks paying storage, re-export the cargo at your own expense, or in some cases lose it.
The difference between one and the other is not technical knowledge. It is the moment when someone asked the question.
What determines the requirements
Almost everything depends on one thing: the tariff classification.
Every product has a code within the customs tariff, and that code carries the approvals that apply. Classifying correctly is not a formality: it defines which permits you need and how much duty you pay.
A wrong classification causes two problems at once: it can make you overpay, and it can make you miss a permit that did apply, which is discovered at the worst possible moment. That is why the first step is always the classification, and why we ask for the product’s technical data sheet and not just its commercial name.
The authorities that come up most
Five entities, depending on what you bring in.
Agriculture and Livestock Service
It controls everything of plant or animal origin, and anything that can carry pests: agricultural products, plant-based foods, seeds, wood and wooden packaging, untanned leather, animal products and pet food. Green coffee is a representative case: from a phytosanitary standpoint it is living plant material, requires a certificate from the country of origin and is subject to inspection on arrival; without that certificate it does not enter, and obtaining it after shipment is usually impossible because it must be issued at origin. It also applies to packaging: wooden pallets and crates must carry the international phytosanitary treatment mark, or they require fumigation at destination or rejection of the entire packaging.
Institute of Public Health
Medicines, pharmaceutical products, medical devices, substances subject to special control and cosmetics. In every case the same logic applies: first the product is authorized, once; then each import is controlled, shipment by shipment. For cosmetics, each reference requires its own authorization: whoever brings in a line of twenty needs twenty procedures, and that cannot be solved in the week before shipment. For medicines and medical devices the regime is stricter still, and also requires authorization of the importing establishment. See the detail
Regional Health Secretariat (SEREMI de Salud)
Foods, food supplements and hazardous chemical substances. This last group comes as a surprise: an industrial chemical input that is neither food nor medicine still falls under health control, and needs SEREMI authorization to leave customs.
Superintendency of Electricity and Fuels
Electrical equipment and gas and fuel appliances. The products on its list require an approval certificate issued from tests at a recognized laboratory. Certification applies to the model, not the shipment: once certified, it serves for later imports of the same product. The first shipment of a new model is the complicated one; the following ones are simple, so it pays to plan that first one with room to spare.
Undersecretariat of Telecommunications
Telecommunications equipment and devices that emit radio frequency: wireless equipment, routers and some consumer electronics.
Other authorities depending on the product: Sernapesca for seafood, explosives and chemical substances control bodies for precursors, and in exports, the certificates of origin that allow the buyer to claim the benefits of the trade agreements in force.
The certificate that lets the cargo leave customs
It cannot be freely removed from the customs area, even if you have paid your duties.
Every product subject to health control has a particularity worth knowing before shipping. To move it you need the Customs Destination Certificate (Certificado de Destinación Aduanera). Customs requires it, but the health authority issues it, and it authorizes one thing only: moving the goods from the customs area to a warehouse with a valid health authorization.
Who issues it
| Product | Authority |
|---|---|
| Cosmetics | ISP |
| Pharmaceutical products | ISP |
| Medical devices, with or without health registration | ISP |
| Foods and food supplements | SEREMI de Salud |
| Hazardous chemical substances | SEREMI de Salud |
Requesting it from the wrong authority is a frequent mistake, and it almost always comes from a badly done classification of the product.
What the certificate does not do
It does not authorize sale. It is the costliest misunderstanding in the whole process.
The certificate allows the move to a warehouse. To sell, many products afterwards need the authorization for use and disposal, which is requested once the goods are already deposited. And depending on the product, the corresponding health registration too.
Whoever plans the arrival of their goods thinking the certificate releases them for sale discovers, with the cargo in their warehouse, that they still cannot move it.
What should be settled before arrival
- The authorized warehouse. Its health authorization must be valid at the time the certificate is requested. A warehouse with an expired or pending authorization stops everything.
- Consistent documentation. The invoice, the packing list and what is declared to the health authority have to match. A difference in description or quantity between those documents is enough reason to halt the application.
- Prior authorizations. If the product requires health registration and does not have it, the certificate solves nothing.
Starting this procedure with the cargo already at the port is the surest way to pay storage that could have been avoided.
How it changes by mode of transport
The requirement is the same, but the room to maneuver is not.
Ocean
This is where there is the most time to solve things: a transit of several weeks allows procedures to run in parallel while the cargo sails. But it is also where getting it wrong costs the most. A held container accrues two simultaneous charges —the demurrage the shipping line bills for retaining its equipment, and the storage the terminal charges— and both run from discharge, not from when you try to collect. A permit that takes three weeks with the container at the port can cost more than the freight.
Air
Here lies the greatest risk, and it is counterintuitive: the cargo arrives in days, and if the permit takes weeks, the goods wait at the air terminal, where storage is considerably more expensive than at a port and is charged per kilo per day. The practical rule: the permit must be settled before the cargo takes off, because there is no transit time to process it in parallel. Air is precisely the mode chosen for urgency, and that urgency disappears if the cargo is held.
Road
The documentation travels with the truck and is checked at the border crossing. A missing document leaves the truck stopped at the border, generating a daily cost and tying up equipment that cannot do anything else. In the regional corridor the cargo may cross more than one country, and each one has its own transit requirements: a permit that is valid at destination does not always solve the intermediate crossing.
How we operate
Six steps, from classification to release.
- Tariff classificationBased on the product’s technical data sheet, not its commercial name. The classification determines both the duty and the approvals that apply.
- Requirements mapWe determine which authorities are involved, what each one requires and how long it takes. This happens before the shipment is confirmed, which is the only moment when the information is useful for making decisions.
- Documentation from the supplierMany certificates must be issued at origin and cannot be replaced later. We ask the supplier for what is needed, in the right format, before the cargo leaves. It is where the most time is lost: a badly issued certificate has to be redone in the country of origin, with the cargo already at sea.
- Pre-arrival proceduresRegistrations, authorizations and applications that can be advanced while the cargo is in transit.
- Filing and coordinationBefore each authority, and coordination of the physical inspection when applicable.
- ReleaseWith the approval obtained, clearance can be completed.
When it pays to review
Before the decision has already been made.
- Before buying, if it is a new product for you. Knowing that a cosmetic needs health registration changes the whole project calendar, and sometimes changes the decision to import it.
- Before changing suppliers, even if the product is the same. Certificates are usually tied to the manufacturer.
- Before the first shipment of a new model of electrical equipment. Certification can take longer than the shipment itself.
- Before expanding a product line. Each new reference can bring its own procedure.
Before buying
What we need to review it.
- Technical data sheet of the product, not just the commercial name
- Composition or materials, where applicable
- Intended use and who it is for
- Country of origin and manufacturer
- Whether you have imported it before and under what classification
- Certificates the supplier can issue
Next step
Tell us what you need to import.
With the technical data sheet we can tell you which authorities are involved and how long it takes. If information is missing, we write to you before quoting instead of giving you a number that changes later.