Trade Bridge International, Inc. was established in 2005 by a group of like-minded sponsoring businesses that wanted to support the cause of US SME importers and exporters and develop products and services that would fill their unique needs. Those sponsors are also SMEs:
- Kernow Capital Corporation (KCC): Holding company
- Corporation for International Business (CIB): Issuer of ATA Carnets
- Trade Innovations, Inc. (TII): Compliance & Supply Chain Security
- Trade Risk Guaranty (TRG): Issuer of import bonds and sureties
- TRG Direct: Direct import entry filing service
- Wyvern International Insurance Brokers: Specialists in Cargo Insurance - International and Domestic Cargo risks
By using their combined client lists to create a membership base, the sponsors recruited 7,000 SMEs as Trade Bridge members. Membership is, and has always been, free. (The Mission Statement)
SME Value Proposition
The TBI sponsors key goal is to market services with a better value proposition than what is traditionally available to SMEs.
For example, both customs bonds and ATA carnets are available direct from the source (TRG and CIB), without a freight forwarder (FF) or customs house broker (CHB) as intermediary thereby increasing efficiency and accuracy as well as reducing product or service costs.
The largest undertaking to date by TBI and its sponsors is the founding of a company that offers direct-filing of customs entries for importers at a very low cost of entry – TRG Direct/TBI Brokers - "File Your Own Customs Entries with the Support, but not the Cost, of a Broker."
TRG Direct is the brand and TBI Brokers is the nationally licensed CHB that supports importers in using the direct-filing system. This is a web-based system that can be accessed for just a few thousand dollars and simple in-person or telephone training. TRG Direct makes direct-filing attainable for SME importers and can save them thousands of dollars annually as well as increasing accuracy, compliance and control.
The newest TBI service for SME international traders is Wyvern International Insurance Brokers (WIIB). This is a boutique marine cargo insurance brokerage that gives US importers and exporters direct access to the Lloyd's of London insurance market. While this facility doesn't use the model of "cutting out the middle man," it does provide US SMEs with access to the largest and most versatile insurance market in the world for marine cargo insurance.
New Product Development
Coming soon will be a new program and business supporting the financial side of the international physical supply chain. With banks and other lenders afraid or unable to support import and export activities, TBI will be launching a new service to support first time export sales, routine sales of small dollar values, SME multi-buyer financing facilities where trade credit insurance is required, 3PL inventory, processing and warehousing—owner as well as client needs, and clients using carnets to build new business through trade show sales and carrying samples abroad.
Global Representation
In addition to product development, TBI represents US SMEs internationally and nationally. TBI is the North American representative for SMEs to the WCO (World Customs Organization) and attends quarterly meetings in Brussels to balance the voice of the multinational corporations at these international policy-making meetings.
TBI also represents SMEs at the CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) annual C-TPAT symposium and to the AAEI (American Association of Exporters and Importers) which has almost no SME membership except customs house brokers and freight forwarders. Last year TBI sponsored a series of seminars – webinars including hosting CBP officials to speak on the topic of 10+2 (Importer Security Filing). This was one of the few times that CBP got to speak directly to hundreds of US SMEs about 10+2 without the filter of a customs broker.
TBI works with US legislators to identify trade agreements and legislation that impacts the competitive position of US SMEs as international traders. Trade Bridge is not a registered lobbying organization. Rather, TBI’s approach is to accept that the regulatory, economic and political landscape is constantly changing. The best way to adapt to change is to develop and bring to market new commercial solutions. Instead of spending time and money fighting the inevitable, TBI works to find a better way to do something and make it commercially available to the firms most in need of those solutions – SMEs.