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What your trade agency, customs broker and distributor each check
Three parties can each tell you something true, and still leave the appointment decision uncovered. Here is what each one actually checks, and where the gap sits.
By the time an exporter asks for help, three parties have usually already given an opinion: the distributor, the customs broker and a trade agency or chamber. Each has a real function. None of them is paid to answer the question the exporter is actually facing, which is whether to make this appointment.
Your distributor
What it checks. Its own commercial interest: which products it can sell, at what price, to whom. It knows the local market better than you do, and it will usually be right about the market and optimistic about the paperwork.
What it does not check. Whether it can legally import your goods for resale. Whether the company records support what it says about its scale. Whether its payment behaviour will survive a first large order.
The structural problem. It is a party to the deal. Every answer it gives is shaped by wanting the appointment, which is not dishonesty. It is just not evidence.
Your customs broker
What it checks. Classification, duty, clearance procedure and the documents needed to move goods through customs. A licensed broker is the right person to ask how a shipment clears, and what the tariff line is likely to be.
What it does not check. Whether the importer's licence category fits importing for resale. Whether the appointment terms are sound. Whether the distributor will pay you.
Where it sits. The broker is usually appointed by the importer, not by you. That does not make the advice wrong, but it does decide whose interest it is aligned with when a question is close.
Your trade agency or chamber
What it checks. Market access, programmes, exhibitions, introductions, and often the rules and documents for a corridor. A good agency knows which requirements bite in practice and which are theoretical.
What it does not check. A named company's licence route, records or payment behaviour for your specific appointment. It serves the market, not your transaction, and it cannot give you a written position you can take to your board.
| Party | Answers | Leaves open | Ask them for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distributor | Market, customers, price | Licence route, records, payment behaviour | Registration extract, licence page, references, import history |
| Customs broker | Classification, duty, clearance | Whether the importer can import for resale, deal terms | The tariff line, the documents required, the likely port risk |
| Trade agency | Market access, programmes, rules in practice | The named company, your transaction | Introductions and a view on the corridor, in writing if possible |
The gap nobody is paid to fill
Each party answers a question. Nobody assembles the answers into a position on one appointment: this company, this product, these terms, this date. That is the gap an independent check fills. It reads the records and the rules, puts the company's claims against what the evidence supports, and writes down what is unresolved and who can close it.
The independence matters as much as the assembly. A distributor is a party. A broker is usually appointed by the importer. An agency serves the market. The exporter pays for the check and receives the only answer written for it.
A practical sequence. Ask the agency about the market. Ask the broker about clearance and classification. Ask the distributor for the documents in writing. Then ask who is checking whether the three answers fit together. If the answer is nobody, that is the decision to make next.
When to use each
- Use the agency when you are choosing a market or a corridor, and when you need introductions.
- Use the broker when you have a product and a shipment, and need to know how it clears.
- Use the distributor for market knowledge and customers, while asking for the documents behind every claim.
- Use an independent check when the appointment has a date, especially if exclusivity is being requested.
Three questions to ask before you pay anyone
Each of the three parties above can give you something useful. Before you pay any of them, or an independent firm, ask these three questions. The answers tell you whether the advice is evidence or opinion.
- Who does the answer serve? Your proposed importer is a party to the deal. A trade agency serves the market. A broker is usually appointed by the importer. Ask who is paying for the answer, and what the provider gains if you proceed.
- Who is actually checking? Where a finding needs local expertise, an analyst reading the text is not enough. Ask for the reviewer's name, registration and the questions they will review, in writing, before you pay. If a proposal does not say, ask for it.
- Is it written, dated and signed? Tariffs, licences and surveyor rules change. An answer without the date it was checked is not something you can take to your management or defend in six months, and an unsigned answer has no accountable author.
A provider that answers all three in the proposal is giving you something you can test. One that answers none of them is asking you to trust the relationship instead.
Written 31 October 2026. Roles described generically; duties differ by market and licensure.