A container can sit at your port for days because one document names the wrong consignee, or the packing list does not match the invoice. The documents are cheap to get right and expensive to get wrong, and the time to check them is before the ship sails.
The core set
- Commercial invoice: matching the contract price, the Incoterm and the exact goods description your tariff classification needs.
- Packing list: carton counts, weights and marks that match what was actually loaded, not what was planned.
- Bill of lading or airway bill: consignee and notify party exactly as your broker wants them, and a goods description consistent with the invoice.
- Certificate of origin: from the authority your country recognises, including any preferential certificate that reduces your duty.
- Certificate of analysis: the laboratory's original for the lot shipped.
- Product-specific certificates: phytosanitary, fumigation, health or conformity certificates as your product and country require, applied for early enough not to delay the container.
The one rule
Every document must agree with every other document. The same names, the same quantities, the same descriptions, the same dates in the right order. Send the full set to your broker before arrival and ask them to check it. A question answered a week early is a container that is not held.