Industrial Pre-shipment Inspection Services 

This article provides information about industrial pre-shipment inspection services which are provided by independent Pre-shipment third party inspection companies. This article is supplementary article for Pre-Shipment Inspection and Commodity Inspection.

pre-shiment inspection

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we can categorize following for Pre-Shipment Inspection Services:

  • Pre-shipment third party inspection when there is LC payment model and buyer require third party inspection
  • Pre-shipment third party inspection when there is TT payment model but there is a need for a third party inspection becouse of buyer requirements
  • Price verification services to the bankers for proforma Invovice approval
  • Price verification services to the custom authorities for custom duties evaluation

The following items will provide you with supplementary information about pre-shipment inspection services:

Responsibility of Pre-Shipment Inspection services Companies

Responsibility is among the scope of inspection. If the scope determined a 1 man-day inspection for visual quality, packing, marking and loading inspection of a centrifugal pump, then the purchaser cannot claim for the pump's correct performance in operation.

The responsibility of third party inspection when witnessing a pump performance test and mechanical running test is very different when only assigned for visual quality inspection.

Pre-Shipment Inspection of Import and Export Act

The pre-shipment inspection for import and export in some countries is mandatory, and in some others it is optional. The regulation is different from one country to another country.

Some countries mandated it only for import to their countries, some others only for export and some mandated for both import and export such as India.

Some countries only mandated pre-shipment inspection for some specific goods, so it will be necessary for the exporter or forwarder check this point before shipment.

The countries listed below require preshipment inspection:

India, Bangladesh, Mali, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Benin, Ecuador, Togo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Cambodia, Iran, Kenya, Kuwait, Liberia, Madagascar, Central African Republic Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uzbekistan.

Preshipment inspection agreement

The Pre-shipment inspection agreement refers to the World Trade Organization agreement. Most of the WTO agreements are the result of the 1986–94 Uruguay Round negotiations, signed at the Marrakesh ministerial meeting in April 1994. There are about 60 agreements and decisions totaling 550 pages.

One of these agreements is about pre-shipment inspection. This agreement recognizes that GATT 1994 principles and obligations apply to the activities of pre-shipment inspection agencies mandated by governments.

Based on this agreement, the Pre-shipment inspection is the practice of employing specialized private companies (or “independent entities”) to check shipment details essentially price, quantity and quality of goods ordered overseas.

This service is used by governments of developing countries, for the purpose of safeguarding national financial interests (preventing capital flight, commercial fraud, and customs duty evasion, for instance) and to compensate for inadequacies in administrative infrastructures.

If a dispute arises between the Pre-shipment inspection agency and an exporter that is a WTO member country, the WTO Agreement on Pre-shipment Inspection would be a basis for dispute settlement.

Based on the agreement, any dispute shall be subject to the provisions of Article XXIII of GATT 1994, as elaborated and applied by the Dispute Settlement Understanding.