How To Import - The Basics

The Basics of Importing can be divided into several steps:

Step One - The Plan
Step Two - Logistics
Step Three - Foreign Sourcing
Step Four - Financing
Step Five - Security

STEP ONE - THE PLAN
Once you have determined that importing certain goods can benefit your business, the next process in Step One is to develop a thorough business plan. When building your business plan determine the domestic target market, evaluate government regulations and pay attention to the nature of the product to determine the proper Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) product classification. The HTS compiled by the US Government will better enable you to understand applied tariffs assessed to your merchandise. Most tariffs applied to merchandise are ad valoreom, which equates to a certain percentage of duty on invoiced cost your imported product.
For comprehensive HTS tariff determination for your imports access the fee based www.tariffic.com or www.apectariff.org websites or contact the Government Printing Office (GPO) bookstore to purchase a hard copy of the US Harmonized Tariff Schedules.
In the business plan process you need to determine if the government of the imported product has any imposed quota restrictions to protect various domestic industries, or there might be restrictions because the product may be harmful to human, animal or plant health. Without properly researching this information you may be stuck with boxes of un-sellable merchandise at Customs.
To further your research, the US Census Bureau of Foreign Trade Statistics at www.census.gov , The US Chamber of Commerce at www.uschamber.org and Portals to the World at www.loc.gov offer in depth business and demographic research and business reference links for your country of interest.
The following list of websites will be helpful in the business planning process.
World Trade Magazine Online is an good resource for current global trade information www.worldtrademag.com
World Trade Ref now contains tables of import and export document requirements for the top 50 trading nations. World Trade Ref now has the ability to translate 3,127 trade related terms from and to 8 different languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. www.worldtraderef.com
The free b2b marketplace –bytrade.com: www.bytrade.com

I will add the remaining step for several times.
to be continuced....