Free tool · Quick acronym lookup
Shipping and customs run on three-letter words, and nobody hands you the key. This is the key: the acronyms an importer, exporter or forwarder meets, in plain words, searchable before you finish typing.
Definitions, not legal advice, and no duty rate is stated here — for a number, use the US import duty calculator. Each entry that rests on a published source names it, and the day it was checked.
240 entries
Third-party logistics provider
Charges and contracts
A company you outsource warehousing, fulfilment or transport management to, as opposed to a forwarder who arranges a single move. A 4PL goes one step further and manages your other providers, including your 3PLs, as a single point of contact.
Personal customs clearance code (gaein tonggwan goyu buho)
Korea
The code a Korean individual obtains from Korea Customs so that a parcel bought from abroad can be cleared in their name without their resident registration number. Every B2C parcel into Korea needs it, and a missing one holds the parcel at the bonded area.
Licensed customs broker (gwansesa)
Korea
Korea's licensed customs broker, who files import and export declarations in UNIPASS on a client's behalf and is the only party outside the trader itself who may. The counterpart of the US customs broker, with a separate licence and a separate power of attorney.
Bonded area (bose guyeok)
Korea
A Korean bonded area, where foreign goods can be stored, inspected or processed under customs control before an import declaration is accepted; the counterpart of a US bonded warehouse or FTZ. UNIPASS tracks goods entering and leaving one.
Port of Busan (KRPUS)
Korea
Korea's largest port and the transshipment hub for much of Japan and north China, split between the old North Port and the newer Busan New Port (부산신항) where most US-bound mainline services call. Its UN/LOCODE is KRPUS, and its typhoon closures ripple through every Korea–US schedule.
Import declaration (suip singo)
Korea
The declaration filed in UNIPASS for goods entering Korea, the counterpart of a US entry, usually by a licensed customs broker on the importer's behalf. Duty, VAT and any requirement confirmations are settled against it before release.
Export declaration (suchul singo)
Korea
The declaration a Korean exporter or its customs broker files in UNIPASS before goods leave Korea; its acceptance number (수출신고번호) is what the forwarder needs to load. The certificate it produces (수출신고필증) is the proof that the goods left Korea declared.
Free trade zone (jayu muyeok jiyeok)
Korea
Korea's free trade zones, designated under MOTIR, where foreign goods can be stored, processed and re-exported free of customs duty and where manufacturers get tax and tenancy incentives; Busan New Port and Incheon airport have them. The free economic zones (경제자유구역) are a separate, wider investment scheme.
Customs clearance (tonggwan)
Korea
The Korean word for clearing customs, in either direction, and the heading on UNIPASS's cargo progress screen (화물통관 진행정보). 'Clearance complete' there means the Korean side is done, not that the goods have cleared in the US.
Cargo control number (hwamul gwalli beonho)
Korea
The number Korea Customs assigns to each consignment on the cargo manifest, which UNIPASS uses to track it from arrival through bonded storage to release. For a Korea-bound shipment it is the key to the clearance-progress lookup; for Korean exports the B/L number does that job.
Automated Broker Interface
Customs and tariffs
The channel a broker's or self-filer's software uses to send entry data to CBP and receive its responses, through ACE. If someone offers to 'file ABI', they mean they are a filer.
Automated Commercial Environment
Customs and tariffs
The US single window: the system through which entries, manifests, security filings and partner-agency data are filed and released. Your broker lives in it; you mostly meet it as 'ACE is down'.
Antidumping and countervailing duties
Customs and tariffs
Extra duties the Commerce Department orders on specific goods from specific countries after finding they are sold below fair value (antidumping) or subsidised at home (countervailing), with the USITC finding injury to a US industry. They are per product, per origin and often per producer, and the rates can be far larger than the ordinary duty.
Automated Export System
Customs and tariffs
The Census Bureau system through which Electronic Export Information is filed for US exports, replacing the old Shipper's Export Declaration; the ITN it returns goes on the export documents. A Korea-bound shipment from the US needs it above the value threshold or when a licence applies.
Automatic Identification System
Tracking and ports
The VHF transponder every large ship carries, broadcasting its identity, position, course and speed to other ships and to shore and satellite receivers. It is where vessel-position maps come from; positions arrive in batches, gaps mid-ocean are normal, and a transponder can be switched off.
A group of carriers operating shared services
Ocean freight
A standing vessel-sharing arrangement among several ocean carriers on the main east–west trades, such as the Premier Alliance that HMM belongs to or the Gemini partnership of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd. When an alliance redraws its network, your port rotation and transshipment hub change with it.
A liner shipping database (fleet and rankings)
Data and indices
The reference database of the container fleet: which carrier operates which ships, the orderbook, and the carrier capacity rankings everyone cites. Context for who is big, not a rate.
Automated Manifest System
Customs and tariffs
CBP's system through which the carrier or NVOCC files the vessel cargo declaration, 24 hours before loading at the foreign port. Your bill of lading has to reach AMS or the container does not sail to the US.
The North American EDI standard
Data and indices
The US EDI standard, maintained by the X12 organisation, with numbered transaction sets: 204 is a load tender, 214 a shipment status, 310 an ocean freight invoice, 315 a container status. If a US partner asks for EDI, this is the dialect.
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA)
Regulators and bodies
The USDA agency that protects US agriculture at the border: plant and animal import rules, the Lacey Act declaration, wood packaging and phytosanitary certificates. Timber, furniture and plant importers answer to it.
Application programming interface
Data and indices
A way for one system to ask another for data or send it an instruction directly, over the web, without a person or a file in between. Tracking providers, carriers and customs tools offer them; a partner who has one needs no EDI.
The carrier's notice that cargo has arrived or is about to
Documents
Actual time of arrival
Ocean freight
Actual time of departure
Ocean freight
The terminal's signal that a container can be picked up
Tracking and ports
The terminal's status that a discharged container has cleared customs and carrier holds, has been paid for and is sitting where a trucker can get it. Available is not the same as discharged, and it is the date most appointment systems key on.
Air waybill
Documents
The air-freight transport document and receipt, issued by the airline or its agent under IATA's standard terms. It is never a document of title, so the consignee named on it gets the goods.
Bill of lading
Documents
The carrier's receipt for the cargo, the evidence of the contract to carry it and, when issued as an original, the document of title: whoever holds it can claim the goods. Three jobs in one piece of paper, which is why its wording gets argued over.
Business-to-business
Charges and contracts
Business-to-consumer
Charges and contracts
Selling to the end consumer, usually online and one parcel at a time; 'direct-to-consumer' is the brand-owned version. Since de minimis ended, each of those parcels needs an entry, which is why cross-border B2C got expensive.
Bunker adjustment factor
Charges and contracts
The fuel surcharge on ocean freight, reset by most carriers quarterly on the first of January, April, July and October from a formula that trails the fuel market. A booking whose ETD slips across a quarter boundary changes its fuel line.
Beneficial cargo owner
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
The importer or exporter who owns the goods and books ocean freight in its own name, as opposed to the forwarder or NVOCC in between; the Shipping Act's 'cargo owner' shipper. Carriers price BCOs and NVOCCs differently, and a 'BCO contract' is one with the owner's name on it.
The quay space a vessel ties up at
Tracking and ports
The spot alongside where a ship moors to work cargo; a berth window is the slot the terminal has promised it, and a ship that misses its window waits at anchor. 'ETB' is the estimated time of berthing, which is what actually starts discharge.
A written CBP decision on classification, value or marking
Customs and tariffs
A written CBP decision on how a product will be classified, valued or marked, requested before import and binding on CBP for that product. Past rulings are searchable in CROSS, and a broker will cite one before arguing a code.
Bureau of Industry and Security (Department of Commerce)
Regulators and bodies
The Commerce bureau that runs export controls (the EAR and its licence lists) and conducts Section 232 investigations. Its Entity List is why some buyers and some products need a licence before they leave the US.
A scheduled voyage the carrier cancels
Ocean freight
The carrier skips a scheduled sailing, and every booking on it is rolled to a later one. Once a holiday habit, now a weekly tool for holding rates, so an ETD is a plan until the vessel has left.
A CBP-supervised warehouse where duty is deferred
Customs and tariffs
A warehouse under CBP bond where imported goods can sit for up to five years with the duty unpaid; duty falls due when they are withdrawn for the US market and not at all if they are exported. Classes 1 to 11 cover everything from a public warehouse to a duty-free shop.
Busan Port Authority
Regulators and bodies
The public corporation that develops and manages Busan port, Korea's largest and one of the world's biggest transshipment hubs. Terminal operators run the berths; BPA owns the port.
Cargo shipped loose rather than in containers
Ocean freight
General cargo loaded piece by piece (crates, bundles of lumber, drums, steel) onto a multipurpose or breakbulk ship, usually because it will not fit in a box. Its own charter terms, its own tally, and notices of readiness instead of cut-offs.
Currency adjustment factor
Charges and contracts
A surcharge that compensates the carrier for exchange-rate movements between the currency it quotes in and the currencies it pays costs in. Small, formulaic and often buried in an all-in rate.
Cubic metre
Ocean freight
The volume unit LCL freight, warehouses and container fill are priced and planned in. A 20ft box holds about 33 CBM, a 40ft about 67 and a 40ft high cube about 76, before you lose space to pallets and air.
US Customs and Border Protection
Regulators and bodies
The agency within the Department of Homeland Security that clears, examines or holds every import into the United States, collects the duty and enforces the rules of some fifty other agencies at the border. Everything your broker files goes to it.
Request for Information
Customs and tariffs
CBP's written request for more facts about an entry: invoices, proof of origin, how the price was reached, a sample. Answer on time and in full; silence tends to turn into a Form 29.
Entry/Immediate Delivery
Customs and tariffs
The release document: it asks CBP to let the goods go before the full entry summary and the duty follow. Release first, Form 7501 within ten working days.
A document stating where goods originated
Documents
A statement of the goods' country of origin, issued by a chamber of commerce or, for KORUS, as a certification written by the importer, exporter or producer. It supports a preferential rate and an origin claim, and it is the first thing CBP asks for when either is questioned.
Cost and Freight (named port of destination)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
The seller pays the ocean freight to the named destination port, but risk passes to the buyer once the goods are on board at origin. Freight is the seller's, the voyage's risks are yours, and insurance is nobody's unless you buy it.
Container freight station
Ocean freight
HTSUS chapter 99 (temporary and additional duties)
Customs and tariffs
The chapter of the HTS where temporary and additional duties live: Section 301, 232, 338 and the rest each get a 9903 heading that is declared beside the product's own line. If a surprise duty exists, this is where it is written down, with the note that says who it applies to.
The greater of actual and volumetric weight
Air freight
Air freight is billed per kilogram on whichever is larger: the scale weight or the volumetric weight (volume in cubic centimetres divided by 6,000 for most airlines and forwarders). Light, bulky cargo pays for the space it takes, not the kilos it weighs.
The road trailer a container rides on
Ocean freight
The wheeled frame a container is locked onto for the road leg; in the US it is usually rented from a pool by the day, which adds a line to the invoice and a reason the trucker cannot collect your box today. Nobody abroad believes this until they see the bill.
Korean harvest festival
Korea
Korea's three-day autumn harvest holiday, by the lunar calendar in September or October, when the country shuts the way it does at Seollal. It often lands near China's Golden Week, so Asia–US capacity is pulled forward in September and blanked in early October.
Commercial invoice
Documents
The seller's bill for the goods and the document customs values them from: parties, a description a classifier can use, quantity, unit price, currency, Incoterm and origin, line by line. CBP's own list of what it must contain is in 19 CFR 141.86, and a vague one is the fastest route to a Form 28.
Cost, Insurance and Freight (named port of destination)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
CFR plus insurance: the seller pays freight to the named port and buys minimum-cover cargo insurance in the buyer's favour, while risk still passes on board at origin. For US customs the freight and insurance inside a CIF price are deductible from the dutiable value if they are shown separately.
Carriage and Insurance Paid To (named place of destination)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
CPT plus insurance, and since Incoterms 2020 the insurance must be all-risks cover rather than the minimum CIF requires. Risk still passes at the first carrier, so the buyer is the one who claims.
United States Court of International Trade
Regulators and bodies
The federal court in New York that hears customs and trade cases: denied protests, AD/CVD appeals, and the tariff challenges that decided the IEEPA question on its way to the Supreme Court. If a protest is denied, this is the next step.
California's formaldehyde rule for composite wood products
Compliance and product rules
The California Air Resources Board's Airborne Toxic Control Measure that limits formaldehyde emissions from hardwood plywood, particleboard and MDF and from finished goods made with them (cabinets, flooring, furniture), and requires third-party certification and labelling. EPA's TSCA Title VI rule mirrors it nationally, so a compliant label usually names both.
A port-specific surcharge for delays at a congested port
Charges and contracts
A surcharge for a named port where ships are waiting or terminals are jammed, with a start date and usually no end date on the notice. It belongs on a specific lane; check the lane before paying it.
Senda's one-screen view of every open shipment
Tracking and ports
Senda's name for the page that puts every open shipment, its next milestone and its exceptions on one screen, grouped by what needs a person today. The term comes from the big forwarders' operations rooms; the idea is the same at any size.
The country where goods were made or last substantially transformed
Customs and tariffs
The country where goods were grown, produced or manufactured, or where they were last substantially transformed into something new. It decides the duty column, every additional duty and the marking, and CBP now asks importers to prove it back to the raw materials.
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Regulators and bodies
The independent agency that regulates the safety of consumer products, from children's toys to furniture tip-over, and requires certificates of conformity at import. It works with CBP at the ports and can stop a shipment at entry.
Carriage Paid To (named place of destination)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
The multimodal version of CFR: the seller pays carriage to the named place, but risk passes when the goods are handed to the first carrier. Works for containers, trucks and air where CFR only works for a ship.
Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism
Customs and tariffs
CBP's voluntary supply-chain security programme: members document their security practices and are validated by CBP, and in return get fewer examinations and front-of-line treatment. It is a programme you join, not a badge you buy.
Container Trades Statistics
Data and indices
A monthly dataset of container volumes by trade region and a price index derived from carriers' actual invoiced rates, surcharges included, which is why it disagrees with the quote-based indices. Volume data by port pair is its real value; the index lags the market.
A surety's promise that the importer's duties will be paid
Customs and tariffs
A surety's undertaking to CBP that the importer's duties, taxes, fees and penalties will be paid. A continuous bond covers a year of entries; a single transaction bond covers one, and liquidated damages for a late ISF are claimed against it.
A person licensed by CBP to transact customs business for others
Customs and tariffs
A person or firm licensed by CBP to classify, file entries, pay duty and answer CBP on an importer's behalf. Senda is not one; the broker's licence and the importer's bond are what stand behind a filing.
The deadline before a sailing
Ocean freight
The deadlines a booking must meet to make the vessel: the cargo (or CY) cut-off for the full container to be in the terminal, the SI cut-off for the B/L data, the VGM cut-off, and the customs cut-off for export filing. Miss any one and the box rolls.
Container yard
Ocean freight
Demurrage and detention
Ocean freight
Not the game. Two daily charges: demurrage for a laden container sitting in the terminal past its free days, detention for keeping the carrier's container outside the terminal past its free days, sometimes merged into one clock.
Delivery order
Documents
The carrier's or forwarder's instruction to the terminal to release a container to the named trucker, issued once the bill of lading is surrendered and the charges are paid. No delivery order, no pickup, however clear customs is.
Delivered at Place (named place of destination)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
The seller delivers the goods, ready for unloading, at the named place in the buyer's country, bearing the risk and the freight to get there; the buyer unloads and clears import, paying the duty. Everything but the customs, which is the part that goes wrong.
Delivered Duty Paid (named place of destination)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
The seller does everything, including import clearance and the duty, and delivers to the named place ready for unloading: the most a seller can take on. A foreign seller doing DDP into the US needs an importer of record, a bond and a broker, and a tariff change lands on its margin.
Section 321 duty-free treatment for low-value shipments
Customs and tariffs
The treatment that let shipments worth up to $800 a day per person enter the US with no duty and a bare-bones declaration. It was suspended for every country by executive order in 2025, CBP made the suspension indefinite by rule in June 2026, and the statutory exemption itself is repealed from 1 July 2027, so every parcel now needs an entry.
A daily charge for a container left in the terminal past free time
Ocean freight
What the carrier (sometimes through the terminal) charges per day for a laden container that stays inside the terminal after its free time. The rate usually steps up after the first few days, so a week late costs more than seven times a day late.
A daily charge for the carrier's container kept outside the terminal past free time
Ocean freight
What the carrier charges per day for its container, laden or empty, that is out of the terminal longer than the free time allows; truckers call it per diem. Returning the empty on time stops it, and the empty-return location is not always the terminal you picked it up from.
Dangerous goods
Compliance and product rules
Cargo that US and international rules class as hazardous in transport (aerosols, alcohol-based fragrances and nail products, lithium batteries, many chemicals), each with a UN number, a class and packing rules. Whether something is DG is the shipper's declaration to make; Senda can only flag lines that are often DG for you to confirm with your forwarder.
Shipper's declaration for dangerous goods
Documents
The shipper's signed declaration that a dangerous-goods consignment is classified, packed, marked and labelled to the IMDG Code (sea) or the IATA DGR (air), with the UN number and class on it. It is the shipper's liability in writing, and a misdeclaration is how ship fires start.
A master air waybill issued straight to the shipper
Air freight
An air waybill the airline issues directly to the shipper, with no house bill in between, often with a forwarder named as agent. IATA's revised direct air waybill terms from 1 July 2026 treat a forwarder that tenders cargo for a third-party shipper, without its own agreement with the airline, as if it were the shipper, which is why forwarders are reading their dangerous-goods paperwork more carefully.
Lifting the container off the vessel
Tracking and ports
The milestone when the container comes off the ship at the port of discharge. Many free-time clocks start here, or the day after, rather than at vessel arrival or availability.
Senda's document reading pipeline
Documents
Senda's name for turning an uploaded invoice, packing list, bill of lading or tally sheet into fields a person can check. Cheaper readers run first and a vision model only when they cannot read the page.
Delivered at Place Unloaded (named place of destination)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
DAP, except the seller also unloads at the named place; it replaced DAT (Delivered at Terminal) in Incoterms 2020 and is the only rule that makes the seller unload. Import clearance and duty remain the buyer's.
Duty drawback
Customs and tariffs
A refund of most of the duties, taxes and fees paid on imported goods that are later exported or destroyed, or used to make an exported product. The claim has its own evidence trail, its own filing and a five-year window.
The short road haul of a container to or from the port
Ocean freight
Trucking a container between the terminal or rail ramp and a warehouse, usually within a day's drive. Priced per move with accessorials for waiting, chassis, pre-pulls and the rest.
The days a container spends sitting at a terminal or yard
Tracking and ports
How long a container sits at a terminal, rail ramp or depot between arriving and leaving, measured by the terminal and watched by everyone. Long dwell means congestion for the port and demurrage for you.
Enforce and Protect Act
Customs and tariffs
The 2015 law and CBP process for investigating allegations that an importer evaded AD/CVD duties by transshipment, misdescription or undervaluation. A competitor can file the allegation, CBP can impose interim measures during the case, and a finding of evasion makes the duties and cash deposits due in full.
Electronic data interchange
Data and indices
Structured messages exchanged between companies' systems without anyone retyping them: bookings, shipping instructions, status updates, invoices, in the EDIFACT or ANSI X12 formats. It is how a carrier and a big forwarder talk, and what a partner means by 'can you send us EDI'.
UN/EDIFACT, the UN standard for EDI messages
Data and indices
The United Nations standard for EDI message syntax and message types, used by carriers, ports and customs outside North America: IFTMIN for shipping instructions, IFTSTA for status, CUSDEC for customs declarations. If a Korean or European partner asks for EDI, this is the dialect.
Emergency fuel surcharge
Charges and contracts
A fuel surcharge a carrier adds between BAF resets when fuel jumps, with an announced effective date. Shippers question it when fuel is flat; on a US trade it is still bound by the thirty-day filing rule.
Returning the carrier's empty container
Ocean freight
Taking the emptied container back to the depot or terminal the carrier names, by the detention deadline. The named location can change while the box is out, and a depot that is full does not stop the clock by itself.
Customs entry
Customs and tariffs
The act of declaring imported goods to CBP so they can be released: the documentation or data filed under 19 CFR 142.3, today almost always electronically through ACE. The entry date fixes which duties and rates apply, which is why 'when did it enter' is the first question in any tariff argument.
CBP Form 7501
Customs and tariffs
The full declaration of value, classification, origin and duty for a formal entry, on CBP Form 7501 or its electronic equivalent, filed by the broker within ten working days of release and used by CBP to assess the duty. It is also the document a refund or a protest points back to.
US Environmental Protection Agency
Regulators and bodies
The federal agency behind TSCA, the composite-wood formaldehyde rule, pesticide registration and vehicle emissions, each with an import certification or form at entry. Wood products, chemicals and anything with an engine meet it.
Estimated time of arrival
Ocean freight
The carrier's current estimate of when the vessel reaches the port of discharge; it is revised throughout the voyage and is not the day you can pick the box up. Availability comes after discharge, customs release and the terminal's own sorting.
Estimated time of departure
Ocean freight
The planned sailing date and time from the port of loading, as the carrier currently believes it. It is the date the cut-offs count back from, and on a Korea–US sailing it moves more often than people expect.
A customs examination of the cargo
Tracking and ports
CBP's inspection of a shipment, from an X-ray (VACIS or NII) at the terminal to a full devanning at a centralised examination station (CET). It adds days and fees, and a tidy, consistent set of documents is the only thing that shortens it.
A tracking event that breaks the plan
Tracking and ports
A rule that fires when a container's journey departs from its plan: a planned departure missed, the vessel changed, a transshipment delayed, dwell exceeded, the ETA moved. The cause decides what else changes, so a good exception names it.
Ex Works (named place)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
The seller makes the goods available at its own premises, unloaded and uncleared, and everything after that is the buyer's: loading, export clearance, freight, import. The least the seller can do, and a trap for a foreign buyer who cannot file the export declaration in the seller's country.
Freight all kinds
Charges and contracts
A single rate for any commodity in the container, as opposed to the old commodity-by-commodity tariffs; it is the rate level most spot and short-term quotes are built on. Revised every couple of weeks in a moving market, with a short validity.
Free Alongside Ship (named port of shipment)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
The seller delivers the goods, export-cleared, alongside the vessel at the named port, and risk passes there; the buyer loads and ships. A breakbulk and bulk term that makes little sense for a container.
Freightos Air Index
Data and indices
Freightos's air freight index: an all-in spot rate in dollars per kilogram for general cargo over the previous seven days, in three weight breaks, on more than twenty corridors between major hub airports. Daily data, weekly lane reports.
Freightos Baltic Index
Data and indices
A daily and weekly index of 40ft container prices on twelve main lanes, built by Freightos from its marketplace and forwarder data in collaboration with the Baltic Exchange, and used to settle freight futures. Another Asia average; not the price of your booking.
Free Carrier (named place)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
The seller delivers the goods, export-cleared, to the carrier or person the buyer names at the agreed place, and risk passes there. The modern replacement for FOB on containerised cargo, because a container is handed over at a yard, not swung aboard a ship.
Full container load
Ocean freight
US Food and Drug Administration
Regulators and bodies
The agency that regulates food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices and more, and reviews their entries alongside CBP. For a K-beauty or K-food importer it is the regulator that matters most after customs.
Forty-foot equivalent unit
Ocean freight
Food facility registration
Compliance and product rules
The FDA registration every domestic or foreign facility that manufactures, processes, packs or holds food for US consumption must hold and renew every two years. The registration number goes on the prior notice; a lapsed one holds the shipment.
Federal Maritime Commission
Regulators and bodies
The independent agency that regulates the US international ocean transport system: carrier tariffs and service contracts, OTI licences, demurrage and detention practices, and complaints against carriers. Small, but the only place a shipper can take a carrier short of court.
Rate increases on US trades take effect no sooner than 30 days after publication
Charges and contracts
Under the Shipping Act a new or increased tariff rate may not take effect earlier than thirty days after it is published, which is why carriers file GRIs every two weeks and why a surcharge that starts sooner on a US lane can be challenged. It is also what makes a notices calendar possible: the dates are public before they bite.
A carrier's published rates and rules
Charges and contracts
The rates, rules and charges an ocean common carrier or NVOCC must publish in an automated tariff system for US trades; anyone without a service contract ships under it. The free-time and demurrage rules that apply to you are in here, if nobody negotiated otherwise.
Free On Board (named port of shipment)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
The seller gets the goods, export-cleared, on board the vessel at the named port; from that moment cost and risk are the buyer's. The term on most supplier quotes out of Asia, even for containers that FCA would fit better.
The days a container may stay without demurrage or detention
Ocean freight
The number of days a container may sit in the terminal, or stay out with the consignee, before the daily charges start. Every carrier, port and contract sets its own, in calendar or working days and from a different starting milestone, which is why a date is only as good as the rule it came from.
The agent who arranges transport on a shipper's behalf
Ocean freight
The company that books space, prepares documents, arranges trucking and customs, and chases the cargo for you, for a fee or a margin on the freight. On US ocean trades a forwarder that issues its own bill of lading is an NVOCC and needs an FMC licence.
FDA Food Safety Modernization Act
Compliance and product rules
The 2011 law that moved US food regulation from responding to outbreaks to preventing them, through rules on preventive controls, produce safety, sanitary transport and, for importers, the Foreign Supplier Verification Programs. If you import K-food, FSVP is the part with your name on it.
Foreign Supplier Verification Programs
Compliance and product rules
The FSMA rule that makes the US importer of food (the US owner or consignee at entry) verify that each foreign supplier produces it to US safety standards, with a written programme, hazard analysis and records FDA can ask for. The importer, not the supplier, is the one FDA inspects.
Foreign-trade zone
Customs and tariffs
A secured area under CBP supervision where imported goods can be stored, assembled or manufactured without an entry or duty until they leave the zone for the US market, and with no duty at all if they are re-exported. Korea's free trade zones are a different legal creature built on a similar idea.
The container leaving the terminal
Tracking and ports
The milestone when a truck takes the full container out through the terminal gate; 'gate-in' is the full export box arriving, or the empty coming back. Gate-out stops the demurrage clock and starts the detention one.
General Certificate of Conformity
Compliance and product rules
The written certificate an importer or US manufacturer of a general-use consumer product must issue, based on testing or a reasonable testing programme, stating which CPSC rules the product meets. Children's products need the stricter Children's Product Certificate (CPC), based on third-party lab testing.
The six rules for classifying goods in the HTS
Customs and tariffs
The rules at the front of the tariff schedule that say how to pick a heading: by the heading text and chapter notes first, then by essential character for mixtures and sets, then by the heading that comes last in order. Not to be confused with a carrier's GRI, which is a rate increase.
General rate increase
Charges and contracts
A carrier's across-the-board increase to base freight rates on a trade, filed with the FMC thirty days ahead and landing on the first or fifteenth of the month on the transpacific. Announced ones 'stick' or 'collapse' within days, so the number on the notice is not the number you will pay.
Generalized System of Preferences
Customs and tariffs
A US programme that let goods from designated developing countries enter duty-free under the 'A' symbols in the HTS. Its authorization lapsed on 31 December 2020 and, as the 2026 tariff schedule still notes, Congress has not renewed it, so the symbol is printed but the rate cannot be claimed.
House air waybill
Documents
House bill of lading
Documents
High-cube container
Ocean freight
Harbor maintenance fee
Customs and tariffs
A fee on commercial cargo unloaded from a vessel at a US port, charged as a small percentage of value and paid with the entry summary. Air and truck arrivals do not pay it; ocean arrivals do.
A flag that stops a container leaving the terminal
Tracking and ports
Anything that stops a container being released: a customs hold for an exam or a document, a carrier hold for unpaid freight or an unsurrendered original, a terminal hold for unpaid storage. Each is cleared by a different person, and the free time keeps running under all of them.
Harmonized System
Customs and tariffs
The six-digit product nomenclature the World Customs Organization maintains and more than 200 customs administrations use. Every country adds digits of its own after the sixth, so a code that is right in Korea is only a starting point in the US.
Harmonized System of Korea (10-digit)
Korea
Korea's 10-digit tariff code: the international six-digit HS plus four Korean digits, as the Korea Customs Service classifies goods. The first six digits should match the US HTS line; the last four never will, so classify twice.
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States
Customs and tariffs
The US tariff book, published by the USITC: every imported product has a 10-digit line in it, and the line sets the duty. The first six digits are the international HS; the last four are American.
Indirect air carrier
Air freight
A forwarder or consolidator that tenders cargo to airlines without being an airline itself, which in the US means holding a TSA-approved security programme. Under it, cargo for passenger flights must come from a known shipper the IAC has vetted or be screened before it flies.
International Air Transport Association
Regulators and bodies
The airlines' trade association, which publishes the Dangerous Goods Regulations, the air waybill conditions and the airport and airline codes the whole industry uses. Not a regulator, but its rulebooks are what the airlines will enforce on your cargo.
IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations
Air freight
The airline industry's field manual for shipping dangerous goods by air, built on the ICAO Technical Instructions and in places stricter than them, revised every year. If it is in a bottle, an aerosol or has a battery, this is the book that decides whether and how it flies.
International Chamber of Commerce
Regulators and bodies
The Paris-based business organisation that publishes the Incoterms rules and the UCP 600 rules letters of credit run on. Neither is law; both are what the contract and the bank will hold you to.
International Emergency Economic Powers Act
Customs and tariffs
The emergency-powers statute behind the 2025 'reciprocal' and 'fentanyl' tariffs. On 20 February 2026 the Supreme Court held in the Learning Resources case that IEEPA does not authorise tariffs, so it is no longer a tariff authority: those duties stopped being collected on entries from 24 February 2026, and refunds of duties already paid are a separate, still-moving process to ask your broker about.
International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code
Compliance and product rules
The IMO's code for carrying packaged dangerous goods by sea, mandatory under SOLAS since 2004 and revised every two years. It decides the packing, segregation, stowage and documents for a DG container; the air equivalent is the IATA DGR.
International Maritime Organization
Regulators and bodies
The UN agency for shipping safety, security and pollution, whose conventions (SOLAS, MARPOL) and codes (IMDG, ISPS) are implemented by flag states and ports. The VGM rule, the sulphur cap and the dangerous goods code all come from here.
The ship's permanent seven-digit identity
Tracking and ports
FDA's list of products and firms subject to detention without physical examination
Compliance and product rules
An FDA notice that a product, firm or country has a history of violations, letting FDA detain future shipments of it without testing or examining them (DWPE) until the importer proves the shipment is clean. CBP does not issue import alerts; its counterparts are withhold release orders and findings.
The party responsible to CBP for the entry
Customs and tariffs
The party CBP holds responsible for an entry: the person primarily liable for the duty, or the agent acting for them. It is whose name the bond is in, and who gets the Form 28.
International Commercial Terms (ICC Incoterms 2020)
Trade terms (Incoterms and more)
The ICC's set of eleven three-letter rules that say, for a sale of goods, who arranges and pays for which leg, where risk passes from seller to buyer, and who clears customs. They are not a contract on their own and say nothing about title or payment, so the sales contract still has to do that work.
A freight contract whose rate tracks a published index
Charges and contracts
A contract whose base rate moves with an index such as the WCI, SCFI or XSI instead of being fixed for the term. Surcharges are not supposed to be added on top of an index-linked rate, and the index is a Shanghai or Asia average, not the price of a Busan box.
A simplified entry for low-value shipments
Customs and tariffs
A simplified entry for shipments generally not over $2,500 in value: no bond, no separate entry summary, filed on the spot. CBP can still require a formal entry for any shipment it chooses.
Incheon Port Authority
Regulators and bodies
The public corporation that manages Incheon port, Korea's main west-coast gateway and the port nearest Seoul for China and short-sea trades. It handles the container, bulk and ferry traffic of the capital region, with its own free trade zone at the airport next door.
Importer Security Filing
Customs and tariffs
Ten data elements the importer (plus two from the carrier) must file with CBP before ocean cargo is loaded at the foreign port: seller, buyer, manufacturer, ship-to, HTS, origin, consolidator and more. Late or missing, it becomes a liquidated-damages claim against your bond.
The container identification and size-type standard
Ocean freight
The standard behind every container number: four owner letters, six digits and a check digit, plus a size-type code such as 22G1 (20ft dry) or 45G1 (40ft high cube). A tracking system that rejects your number has usually caught a typo in the check digit.
International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures No. 15
Compliance and product rules
The IPPC standard for wood packaging material in international trade: pallets, crates and dunnage of raw wood must be heat-treated or fumigated and stamped with the IPPC mark. Unmarked pallets get the whole container held, fumigated or sent back.
International Ship and Port Facility Security surcharge
Charges and contracts
International Trade Administration (Department of Commerce)
Regulators and bodies
The Commerce Department bureau whose Enforcement and Compliance unit runs the dumping and subsidy half of AD/CVD cases, sets the rates and issues scope rulings. When a Federal Register notice says 'the Department', in an AD/CVD case it means this.
Senda's history of how your shipments actually moved
Tracking and ports
Senda's name for the view built from your own completed shipments: transit times by lane and carrier, where delays happened, how often a vessel changed. Your history, not a vendor's index, so it says what happened to you rather than to the market.
Korea Customs Service
Regulators and bodies
Korea's customs administration, under the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which clears every import and export, collects duties and runs the UNI-PASS clearance system. Export declarations, import declarations and bonded areas are all its business.
Korea International Trade Association
Regulators and bodies
Korea Meteorological Administration
Regulators and bodies
Korea's national weather service, which issues the typhoon tracks, storm warnings and marine forecasts that close Busan and Incheon to vessel movements. Typhoon season peaks from August to October, and a port closure cascades into blank sailings.
United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement
Customs and tariffs
The free trade agreement under which qualifying Korean-origin goods enter the US at the 'KR' rate in the HTS Special column, and US goods enter Korea likewise. The claim rests on a certification of origin, and a Section 232 duty is charged on top of the KORUS rate, not instead of it.
Korea Trade Network
Korea
Letter of credit
Documents
A bank's undertaking to pay the seller once the documents named in it are presented and match, line for line, within its validity. Safer for both sides than an open-account wire, and merciless about a misspelt consignee.
The US law against trafficking in illegally taken plants and wildlife
Compliance and product rules
The law that makes it illegal to import any plant or plant product taken or traded in breach of the law of its source country, and that since the 2008 amendments requires a declaration of genus, species, country of harvest, quantity and value for listed products. Wood, furniture, paper and, since the December 2024 phase, far more goods fall under it.
The plant and plant product declaration (PPQ Form 505)
Compliance and product rules
The import declaration of scientific name, country of harvest, quantity and value for each plant product line, formerly on paper PPQ Form 505 and, since 1 January 2026, accepted only through ACE or APHIS's LAWGS. Phase VII of the schedule (1 December 2024) brought furniture, housewares and other finished goods into it.
The full cost of goods delivered to your door
Charges and contracts
The purchase price plus everything it takes to get the goods to your warehouse: freight, insurance, duty and additional duties, customs fees, brokerage, drayage and the surcharges. It is the number the margin is built on, and duty is the part that moves without warning.
Lacey Act Web Governance System
Compliance and product rules
APHIS's web application for filing Lacey Act declarations outside ACE, with a spreadsheet and XML upload for many lines at once. Access needs a USDA eAuthentication account; the upload format is public.
Less than container load
Ocean freight
Your cargo shares a container with other shippers' cargo, consolidated at a CFS at origin and split out again at destination, and you pay by volume. More handling, more days, and a destination CFS charge that is easy to miss on the quote.
Last free day
Ocean freight
The last day a container can sit at the terminal, or stay out on the street, before demurrage or detention starts. It is a date in the terminal's local calendar, not an instant, and whether weekends count depends on the carrier and port.
A liner shipping analyst (capacity and congestion)
Data and indices
A Hong Kong analyst whose weekly notes track fleet capacity, port congestion and the share of ships waiting outside ports. Its congestion figures are the ones the trade press quotes when Shanghai and Ningbo back up.
CBP's final computation of the duties on an entry
Customs and tariffs
The final reckoning of what an entry owed, normally within a year of the entry date; an entry CBP has not acted on in a year is deemed liquidated as filed. After liquidation the ordinary way to change what you paid is a protest, so the clock matters.
Master air waybill
Documents
Master bill of lading
Documents
Ministry of Food and Drug Safety
Regulators and bodies
Korea's food, drug, cosmetics and medical-device regulator, the counterpart of the US FDA; a Korean cosmetic's functional-cosmetic approval and its labelling come from here. Its rules decide what leaves Korea, FDA's what enters the US.
Most-favoured-nation rate
Customs and tariffs
The ordinary duty rate in the HTS 'General' column, applied to goods from every country with normal trade relations unless a preference lowers it or an additional duty sits on top. 'NTR' is the same thing with the diplomacy filed off.
A dated event in a container's journey
Tracking and ports
A dated event the carrier or terminal reports for a container: empty released, gate-in, loaded, departed, transshipped, discharged, available, gate-out, empty returned. A journey is the list of them, and an exception is a milestone that is missing or late.
Maritime Mobile Service Identity
Tracking and ports
The nine-digit radio identity a ship broadcasts over AIS, tied to its flag and reissued if the flag changes. Useful for matching a position feed, less stable than the IMO number.
Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022
Compliance and product rules
The US law, enacted on 29 December 2022, that for the first time makes cosmetics makers register their facilities and list their products with FDA, name a responsible person, keep safety substantiation and report serious adverse events. A Korean cosmetics brand selling into the US lives with every one of those.
Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries
Regulators and bodies
Korea's ministry for shipping, ports and fisheries, which owns the port authorities, runs the PORT-MIS vessel reporting system and sets Korea's maritime policy. Vessel entry and departure data for Korean ports comes from it.
Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources
Regulators and bodies
Korea's trade and industry ministry, which negotiates Korea's trade agreements, runs the free trade zones and houses the trade commission that handles Korea's own antidumping cases. It was the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) until the energy portfolio moved out in October 2025.
Merchandise processing fee
Customs and tariffs
CBP's fee for processing an entry, charged as a percentage of the goods' value between a minimum and a maximum that CBP adjusts each fiscal year. Goods qualifying under some free trade agreements, KORUS among them, are exempt from it.
Minimum quantity commitment
Charges and contracts
The volume (in TEU or FEU) a shipper commits to move under a service contract over its term, in exchange for the contract rate. Ship less and the carrier can claim damages or re-rate you; ship more and the extra may go at spot.
Ningbo Containerized Freight Index
Data and indices
The monthly US import volume forecast from NRF and Hackett Associates
Data and indices
A monthly report of container imports at the main US ports, with forecasts six months out, produced by Hackett Associates for the National Retail Federation. It is where the 'imports expected to fall below two million TEU' headlines come from.
Non-vessel-operating common carrier
Ocean freight
A carrier that sells ocean transport and issues its own bills of lading without operating ships: it buys space from the vessel operators and is a shipper in its dealings with them. Most forwarders on the Korea–US lane act as one, licensed by the FMC.
Optical character recognition
Data and indices
Turning the pixels of a scanned or photographed page into text a computer can search. It reads characters, not meaning: knowing which number on the invoice is the total is the next job.
Out of gauge
Ocean freight
Cargo that sticks out beyond a container's dimensions, carried on a flat rack or open top and priced for the slots it blocks around it. It needs its own survey, lashing and, often, its own road permits.
Original bill of lading
Documents
A negotiable bill of lading issued in a set of originals (usually three); the carrier releases the cargo only against one of them, surrendered at destination. Courier it late and the container waits at the port, with the free time running.
Ocean transportation intermediary
Ocean freight
The FMC's umbrella term for an ocean freight forwarder or an NVOCC: the licensed middlemen between shippers and vessel operators on US trades. Both must hold a licence and a bond, which is what makes a complaint to the FMC possible.
Phytosanitary Certificate Issuance and Tracking system
Compliance and product rules
APHIS's system through which US exporters apply for, and inspectors issue, phytosanitary certificates for plants and plant products leaving the US. A Korean buyer of US lumber or nursery stock will see the certificate it produces.
A plant-health certificate issued by the exporting country
Documents
The exporting country's official certificate that a consignment of plants, wood or plant products was inspected and meets the importing country's plant-health rules. US exporters obtain theirs through APHIS's PCIT system; Korean importers of US timber and plants will ask for it.
The off-peak gate programme at Los Angeles and Long Beach
Tracking and ports
The not-for-profit the two ports' terminal operators created to run the OffPeak programme; most cargo moving through the twelve terminals pays its Traffic Mitigation Fee, which funds the night and Saturday gates. If your box lands in San Pedro Bay, the fee is on the invoice.
Packing list
Documents
The document that says what is in each carton, pallet or bundle: counts, weights, dimensions and marks, with no prices. Customs, the forwarder and the warehouse all read it, and it has to agree with the invoice and the bill of lading to the piece.
Port of discharge
Tracking and ports
The port where the container comes off the vessel, as printed on the bill of lading; the final delivery place can be another city or an inland rail ramp. Truckers use the same three letters for proof of delivery, so read the context.
Port of loading
Tracking and ports
The vessel skipping a scheduled port call
Tracking and ports
The carrier drops a port from the voyage to recover its schedule, so cargo for that port rides on to the next call or is discharged somewhere else; 'cut and run' is leaving early with cargo still on the quay. The free-time clock then runs under the unplanned port's terms, and storage there is a new charge.
The terminal's own charge for space
Ocean freight
Port Management Information System
Korea
A charge for assured space on a sailing
Charges and contracts
What a carrier charges on top of freight to load a container on a particular sailing when allocations are cut, sometimes sold as a 'space protection' product. Pay to play, shown as its own line; without it, contract cargo is what gets rolled first.
Advance notice to FDA of imported food
Compliance and product rules
The notice FDA must receive before any food for humans or animals arrives in the US, filed in ACE or FDA's own system with the article, manufacturer, shipper and arrival details. No prior notice, no entry, and the food waits at the port on your account.
A formal challenge to a CBP decision (CBP Form 19)
Customs and tariffs
The formal challenge to a liquidation, classification, value or other CBP decision, filed on CBP Form 19 within 180 days of the liquidation notice. Miss the window and the decision stands.
Peak season surcharge
Charges and contracts
A surcharge carriers add when demand is strong, originally for the pre-holiday peak and now applied to contract and spot cargo at almost any time of year. It has an announced effective date and a lane, and both can be checked.
Refrigerated container
Ocean freight
A container that did not load on its booked sailing
Ocean freight
Your container was confirmed on a vessel and did not get on it (no space, schedule recovery, or someone paid more), so it goes on a later one. The destination free-time clock moves with it; the origin storage clock does not.
Shanghai Containerized Freight Index
Data and indices
The Shanghai Shipping Exchange's weekly index of spot container rates quoted out of Shanghai to the main destination regions. Because it measures quotes rather than paid rates it tends to lead the WCI by about a week and to price in increases that never stick.
Safety data sheet
Documents
The standardised 16-section sheet that describes a chemical product's hazards, handling, storage and emergency measures, which US law requires manufacturers and importers to obtain or write for each hazardous chemical. The forwarder reads it to decide whether the cargo is dangerous goods; 'MSDS' is the old name.
A non-negotiable ocean transport document
Documents
A bill of lading's non-negotiable cousin: it names the consignee and the carrier delivers to them on proof of identity, with no original to surrender. Fine when buyer and seller trust each other; useless as collateral for a bank.
A liner shipping analyst (schedule reliability)
Data and indices
The Copenhagen analyst whose Global Liner Performance report is the usual source for carrier schedule-reliability percentages. Remember that a blanked sailing cannot be late, so a carrier's on-time score rises when it cancels.
Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 (balance-of-payments authority)
Customs and tariffs
A statute that lets the President impose a temporary import surcharge, capped in size and in time (150 days unless Congress extends it), to address a balance-of-payments problem. It was used in 2026, through chapter 99 headings that expired at the close of 23 July 2026.
Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (national security)
Customs and tariffs
National-security tariffs the President imposes on specific products after a Commerce investigation: steel, aluminum, copper, timber and wood products, vehicles and more, each with its own chapter 99 headings and annexes. A free trade agreement does not remove it; the chapter 99 notes say the duty is collected on top of any special rate.
Downstream products added to the steel, aluminum and copper tariffs
Compliance and product rules
Finished and semi-finished goods that contain steel, aluminum or copper and have been added, in rounds, to the Section 232 annexes: the duty applies to the article's full customs value, outside the metal chapters only when the listed metal is at least 15% of its weight, and the lists keep growing. A line on the list needs its metal's country of smelt and cast declared at entry.
Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (unfair trade practices)
Customs and tariffs
A duty USTR imposes after finding another economy's act, policy or practice unreasonable or unfair; the rate and the goods are set per action, by Federal Register notice. The China lists date from 2018, and a separate action on forced-labor enforcement took effect for many economies on 24 July 2026.
Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1307)
Customs and tariffs
The ban on importing goods made wholly or partly with forced, convict or indentured labor. It is the authority behind withhold release orders and the UFLPA, and since 2016 it has no exception for goods the US cannot make enough of itself.
Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (discrimination by foreign countries)
Customs and tariffs
A rarely used statute that lets the President add duties on, or exclude, goods of a country found to discriminate against US commerce. It was invoked against certain Canadian goods by proclamations of July 2026, with later suspensions and scope changes, so check the current notices before assuming it applies.
Korean Lunar New Year
Korea
Korea's three-day Lunar New Year holiday, on the same dates as Chinese New Year and Tet, when factories, brokers and ports slow for a week or more. The run-up pulls bookings forward and the weeks after bring blank sailings, so plan the February ETDs around it.
A confidential contract between a shipper and an ocean carrier
Charges and contracts
A written contract in which the shipper commits to a volume over a period and the carrier commits to a rate and a service level (space, transit time, port rotation), filed confidentially with the FMC. Its validity, volume, surcharge list and invoicing terms are the audit baseline for every invoice under it.
The Shipping Act of 1984, as amended
Charges and contracts
The US law that governs ocean common carriers, NVOCCs and forwarders on US trades: tariffs, service contracts, licensing, and the prohibited acts a shipper can complain to the FMC about. The Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 added the rules on unreasonable refusals to deal and on demurrage and detention invoices.
Shipping instruction
Documents
The data you send the carrier or forwarder so they can draft the bill of lading: shipper, consignee, notify party, cargo description, marks, weights, container and seal numbers. It has its own cut-off, and after it the B/L is yours to amend at a fee.
Shipper's letter of instruction
Documents
The countries where an article's metal was smelted and cast
Compliance and product rules
For steel, aluminum and copper articles and their derivatives, the country where the metal was melted and poured (steel) or smelted and most recently cast (aluminum, copper), which decides which Section 232 heading applies and must be declared and documented. Your supplier's mill certificate is the evidence, and CBP can ask for it.
Shipper-owned container
Ocean freight
A container the shipper owns or leases instead of using the carrier's, so there is no detention clock on it after discharge. Common on one-way lanes and for project cargo; the carrier may still charge for handling it.
Special program indicator
Customs and tariffs
The one- or two-letter symbol in the HTS 'Special' column that names which trade programme a reduced rate belongs to: 'KR' is KORUS, 'S' is USMCA, 'A' is GSP. The symbol is only an invitation; the goods still have to qualify under that programme's rules of origin, and you have to hold the proof.
The price for a single booking today
Charges and contracts
The rate for one booking on one sailing, valid for a week or two, as opposed to a contract rate fixed for a season or a year. When contract sits below spot you get surcharges or rolled; when it sits above, you no-show.
The test for whether work in another country changes the origin
Customs and tariffs
Goods take a new origin only if the work done in the second country gives them a new name, character or use. Repacking, relabelling or simple assembly does not do it, which is what every transshipment case turns on.
Air freight rate benchmarks (Baltic Air Freight Index)
Data and indices
The air cargo rate benchmarks published by TAC Index, including the Baltic Air Freight Index it compiles for the Baltic Exchange, from forwarders' transacted rates by lane. Weekly and daily readings of what air freight cost, by route, in dollars per kilogram.
A count of pieces loaded or unloaded, made at the time
Documents
The piece-by-piece count a checker makes as cargo is loaded, discharged or packed, often by hand on a tally sheet. It is the evidence when the packing list and what arrived disagree.
Electronic release of a bill of lading at origin
Documents
The shipper surrenders the original bills to the carrier at origin and the carrier tells its destination office to release the cargo without them. It saves couriering paper across the Pacific and is the usual choice once the supplier has been paid.
A booked time slot for a truck at the terminal gate
Tracking and ports
The slot a trucker must book in the terminal's system to collect or return a container, often tied to the container being available and to a chassis. No appointment, no gate; appointments gone for the day, another day of free time gone too.
Twenty-foot equivalent unit
Ocean freight
Terminal handling charge
Charges and contracts
The charge for moving a container between the quay and the yard and onto or off the vessel, billed at origin (OTHC) and at destination (DTHC). Who pays which end follows the Incoterm and the quote, and the two are rarely the same amount.
Transportation management system
Data and indices
The primary basis for the customs value of imported goods
Customs and tariffs
The price actually paid or payable for the goods, plus certain additions such as assists, royalties and packing. Averaging a mixed shipment to one unit price is not valuation; it is a Form 28 waiting to happen.
Moving cargo from one vessel to another en route
Ocean freight
Discharging a container at an intermediate port and loading it onto a second vessel, as Busan does for much of Japan and north China and as Tanjung Pelepas now does for some Busan cargo. In customs, the same word means routing goods through a third country to disguise their origin, which is a very different conversation.
Tariff-rate quota
Customs and tariffs
A two-tier duty: a set quantity of a product enters at a lower rate during the quota period, and everything after it pays the higher rate. An absolute quota, by contrast, simply shuts the door when the number is reached.
Toxic Substances Control Act
Compliance and product rules
The US chemicals law under which an importer of a chemical substance, mixture or article containing one must certify at entry that the shipment complies with TSCA or is not subject to it. Title VI of the Act is the formaldehyde standard for composite wood, which is the part furniture and cabinet importers meet.
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act
Compliance and product rules
The 2021 law, in force since 21 June 2022, under which goods made wholly or partly in Xinjiang, or by an entity on the UFLPA Entity List, are presumed to be made with forced labor and barred under Section 307 unless the importer rebuts it with evidence. The evidence is a supply-chain map back to raw materials, per supplier.
Unit load device
Air freight
The aluminium pallet or container that air cargo is built up on so it can be locked into an aircraft hold; codes such as PMC and AKE name the shape. A forwarder that builds its own ULD pays a lower rate and takes the loading risk.
The four-digit United Nations identifier for a dangerous substance
Compliance and product rules
The four-digit number that identifies a hazardous substance or article in every transport code (UN3480 is lithium-ion batteries, UN1950 is aerosols), listed with its class and packing group in the US hazardous materials table. It goes on the declaration, the label and the placard.
Korea Customs Service's electronic clearance system
Korea
The Korea Customs Service's single-window system through which every Korean import and export declaration, cargo report and bonded movement is filed, and whose open API answers read-only questions such as where a cargo stands in clearance. It does not accept filings from outside the licensed channels, so no app can 'file through UNIPASS' for you.
United States International Trade Commission
Regulators and bodies
The independent agency that publishes and maintains the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, decides the injury half of AD/CVD cases and runs Section 201 safeguard investigations. hts.usitc.gov is its tariff, and the authoritative one.
Office of the United States Trade Representative
Regulators and bodies
The White House office that negotiates trade agreements and runs Section 301 investigations, so its notices are where new 301 duties and exclusions are announced. It decides the action; CBP collects it.
Korea's national e-trade platform
Korea
The KTNET-operated portal where Korean traders prepare and exchange trade documents electronically: letters of credit, insurance, shipping requests, customs filings through a licensed broker. The Korean side of a shipment often starts here.
Verified gross mass
Documents
The weight of a packed container that the shipper must verify, by weighing the loaded box or by adding every package to the container's tare, and declare to the carrier before loading; it has been a SOLAS requirement since 1 July 2016. No VGM by the cut-off, no loading.
Vessel-operating common carrier
Ocean freight
The ocean carrier that actually runs the ships, as the Shipping Act defines an ocean common carrier. Its bill of lading is the master bill, and its tariff and service contracts are what the FMC regulates.
War risk surcharge
Charges and contracts
A per-route surcharge carriers add while a conflict raises insurance and routing costs, such as the Red Sea diversions. Shippers push back when it appears on lanes the ship does not touch, which is a fair question to ask.
World Container Index (Drewry)
Data and indices
Drewry's weekly assessment of spot rates for a 40ft container on eight major east–west routes, published every Thursday and widely used as the benchmark in index-linked contracts. It measures Shanghai to Los Angeles, not Busan to Los Angeles, and it reports what was paid last week, not what you will be quoted.
World Customs Organization
Regulators and bodies
The intergovernmental body of customs administrations that maintains the Harmonized System and its explanatory notes, and the standards (SAFE Framework, data model) customs systems are built on. Every HS code starts in Brussels.
Senda's guided review of how a team runs its trade work
Data and indices
Senda's name for the starting point with a new team: a short, guided form about how your company moves goods today, which Senda's people review before anything is set up. It is a conversation, not a sign-up.
Withhold Release Order
Customs and tariffs
CBP's order to hold goods it reasonably believes were made with forced labor, under Section 307 of the Tariff Act. The importer must prove otherwise or export the goods; a Finding goes further and seizes them.
World Trade Organization
Regulators and bodies
The organisation whose agreements set the rules of trade between its members, including the bound tariff rates behind the MFN column and the disciplines on antidumping and subsidies. When two governments argue about a tariff, this is the forum.
Xeneta Shipping Index
Data and indices
Xeneta's indices built from the contracted and short-term rates its subscribers upload; the public XSI-C publishes daily short-term FAK rates for a 40ft container on eight corridors each weekday afternoon. Useful for the direction of the market; your forwarder's quote is still the number.
Browse by topic
What CBP, the broker and the entry paperwork call things, and the authorities behind every extra duty. Most of these have a form number or a statute behind them.
The paper (and PDFs) a shipment travels on: who issues each one, what it proves, and which cut-off it has to meet.
Boxes, bookings, the people who move them, and the clocks that start running the moment a container is discharged.
What lands on a freight invoice, who you are contracting with, and the rules that decide when a surcharge may take effect.
The vocabulary of a vessel's position, a terminal's screens and a container's milestones, from berth to gate-out.
How air cargo is weighed, booked, screened and documented, and where it differs from the ocean side.
The agencies and programmes that can hold a shipment at the border, and the filings and evidence they ask for.
Who sets the rules, who enforces them and who publishes the standards, in the US, in Korea and internationally.
The Korean systems, filings and calendar dates behind a Korea–US shipment, with the Hangul you will see on the screen.
The rate indices people quote, the datasets ports publish, and the formats trade data travels in.
The three-letter rules that say who pays for which leg and where risk changes hands, and the parties a contract names.
Questions
They are working definitions: what the term means on a booking, a customs entry or a carrier invoice, in plain words. Where an entry rests on a published source, the source and the day it was checked are printed under it. For what a rule requires of your shipment, ask your licensed customs broker.
A rate depends on the tariff line, the country of origin and the revision of the schedule in force, so a number on a glossary page would be stale within weeks. The free US import duty calculator reads the current schedule and names the revision it used.
Yes. Every entry has its own address: use Copy link beside it, or add the term after a # at the end of the page's address. A search is a link too — the address follows what you type, so a link with ?q=lfd opens the page with LFD already looked up.
Search for it and use Ask us about it under the empty result: tell us which acronym and where you met it. A person reads every request, and the ones people ask for are the ones added first.
Fewer acronyms, more shipments
Senda keeps orders, shipments and the documents that travel with them on one shared record. Tell us how your team works today and we will walk one real order-to-shipment workflow with you before anything is signed.