Trade Compliance for Leadership Navigating a Shifting Global Landscape 2025

Implementing corporate good practices3 Any effective trade function is underpinned by strong governance structures, skilled personnel, well-defined processes and enabling technologies. Trade Compliance Practitioners, many of whom are leaders in their field, have helped to identify corporate good practices that build on the fundamentals of an effective trade function and can address many of the new aspects of international trade management highlighted in earlier sections. Companies are rethinking international trade management internally and working out how to formalize the necessary cross-functional collaboration. Two complementary approaches have emerged: Integrating international trade management into business processes Integrating trade compliance into day-to-day business processes ensures that compliance considerations are addressed early. For example, embedding trade requirements into the processes and procedures of other departments – such as integrating origin checks into sourcing workflows or linking classification data to product development – can ensure that compliance is not an afterthought but a built-in part of business operations. Clearly defining roles and responsibilities is vital. One interviewee noted that implementing a role matrix across departments helped reduce confusion and improved efficiency in managing compliance risks. Regular internal communication is also essential. For example, one interviewee established monthly meetings among trade compliance, legal, public affairs and sustainability to stay aligned on regulatory developments and stakeholder engagement. Interviewees also emphasized the importance of educating other departments – for instance, ensuring that sourcing teams understand country-of-origin and forced labour risks – and communicating compliance strategies in clear, non-technical language to build understanding and support across the organization. They also chose to develop short video tutorials. Technology can further enhance collaboration by enabling trade compliance teams to provide real-time insights to other departments on regulatory requirements, tariff exposure and documentation needs. For example, centralized dashboards or data-sharing platforms can help procurement teams assess supplier risk or enable finance teams to model the cost implications of new tariffs or licensing regimes. Additionally, one interviewee described setting up a programme to map trade compliance costs across various departments, which helped demonstrate how proactive compliance could lead to cost savings. This initiative not only improved transparency but also encouraged shared ownership of compliance responsibilities throughout the organization. Creating multidisciplinary task forces for emerging issues For new or evolving obligations – particularly those related to sustainability, labour or geopolitical developments – establishing a cross-functional task force can help with quickly identifying the impact of these obligations and establishing the necessary governance. Many of these new obligations do not align well with traditional departmental boundaries. Compliance often requires a combination of skills, knowledge and information that are typically distributed across multiple functions. As a result, no single department holds all the necessary expertise or data, making cross-functional collaboration essential for meeting these new obligations. 3.1 Improving internal collaboration to meet increasing international trade obligations 1 2 Trade Compliance for Leadership: Navigating a Shifting Global Landscape 16