Customs attachés: your first aid for import problems in distant countries

Trading globally, all well and good, but there are those moments when a lot of sand gets into the machine. Suppose the Chinese equivalent of the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC) is being difficult about importing your container of delicious Belgian waffles, or Russian customs has not yet met its target of value taxes and is suddenly pushing up your import duty: who you gonna call? Answer: the Belgian customs attachés, posted in strategic markets like Russia, China, Brazil and India. They are coming to tell their story in Antwerp on 4 October, but we were already able to attend their roundtable with some Belgian industry stakeholders in Brussels.