From geopolitical conflicts and shifting tariff policies to evolving customs requirements, businesses are navigating a global trade environment that can change quickly and with little warning.
McKinsey found that global trade continued to grow in 2025, suggesting businesses remain reliant on international markets even as trade regulations and geopolitical dynamics continue to shift.
But operating across borders requires more than physical logistics. Businesses must also contend with evolving customs requirements, documentation obligations, duties and taxes, and other factors that can affect how goods move across borders.
As international operations grow, companies need the tools, data, and guidance to make confident decisions throughout the shipping journey.
Key takeaways
- Geopolitical disruptions, shifting sourcing strategies, and evolving trade policies are making international shipping more complex.
- As trade requirements change across markets, businesses must manage a growing number of customs requirements, import costs, and documentation obligations.
- Access to timely trade intelligence and shipment guidance can help businesses make more informed shipping decisions and reduce costly surprises.
How the global trade environment is becoming more complex
Recent years have brought significant shifts to global trade, as geopolitical conflicts, evolving tariff policies, and trade restrictions have created uncertainty around sourcing decisions, how goods move across borders, and what it costs to ship them internationally.
In response, many organizations have expanded supplier networks or adjusted sourcing strategies to reduce risk and maintain continuity. While these efforts can help build resilience, they can also add complexity to the shipping process.
For example, a company that begins sourcing from a new country may need to account for:
- Different duties and taxes
- New customs requirements
- Different documentation requirements
Without a clear understanding of those differences, the business may struggle to estimate costs, which can lead to unexpected import expenses. It may also miss documentation requirements, raising the risk of customs delays and shipment holds.
At the same time, tracking down the information needed to support international shipping decisions can be both difficult and resource-intensive. To determine what customs and regulatory requirements apply to a specific shipment, businesses often need to pull information from customs authority websites, carrier guidance, and trade regulations.
Together, these challenges make it more difficult for businesses to navigate international shipments. In an environment where routine decisions impact costs, compliance, and delivery timelines, access to the right information at the right time is becoming increasingly important. Businesses need capabilities that help them manage complexity and navigate the shipping journey with greater confidence.
4 capabilities businesses need to navigate international shipping with confidence
As trade requirements evolve and shipping operations grow more complex, businesses need four capabilities to make informed international shipping decisions:
1. Understanding what shipments need to clear customs
The challenge: Successfully moving goods across borders requires businesses to understand how their products will be classified and what customs requirements apply before shipping.
Determining the correct Harmonized System (HS) code can be challenging, particularly for organizations managing large product catalogs or navigating country-specific classification requirements. Classification depends on product-specific characteristics, while the customs requirements associated with a shipment may vary by product, destination, and shipment type.
What’s at stake:
- Customs clearance issues and shipment holds
- Shipment and delivery delays
- Increased compliance risk
2. Estimating duties, taxes, and fees with confidence
The challenge: Import-related costs can significantly affect the total cost of international shipments, but estimating those costs is not always straightforward. Duties, taxes, and other fees can vary based on a product’s classification, country of origin, destination market, and other trade measures that may apply to specific products, materials, or countries of origin.
Without clear visibility into potential duties and taxes, it can be difficult to forecast costs or set accurate expectations with customers.
What’s at stake:
- Unexpected duties, taxes, and other costs
- Margin erosion and cost overruns
- Customer dissatisfaction caused by surprise charges
3. Getting documentation right the first time
The challenge: Cross-border shipments require detailed documentation, but requirements can vary by shipment and destination. The information needed to prepare that documentation is also often fragmented across systems.
After identifying documentation requirements, businesses must accurately complete and validate shipment paperwork before goods move across borders. Missing information or inconsistencies can cause delays or compliance issues that can be far more disruptive and costly to resolve once a shipment is already in transit.
What’s at stake:
- Increased compliance risk
- Customs clearance delays and shipment holds
- Increased administrative effort to resolve issues
- Additional costs from rework and corrections
4. Managing shipments after they enter the import process
The challenge: Even after a shipment is on its way, businesses must continue overseeing a range of import-related activities.
As goods move through customs, organizations may need to manage duties and tax obligations, monitor clearance activity, and address issues that arise during the import process. Without timely visibility into shipment status and import activity, it’s hard to identify and resolve issues before they disrupt delivery schedules.
What’s at stake:
- Customs processing delays
- Increased administrative burden
- Disruptions to delivery timelines
Turn international shipping complexity into confidence with Global Trade Navigator
As businesses navigate a complex global trade environment, they need a more efficient way to manage the decisions that affect costs, compliance, and delivery outcomes.
FedEx Global Trade Navigator is a portfolio of digital tools built to help businesses make more informed decisions across the international shipping journey. By providing access to trade intelligence, shipment guidance, and visibility into import processes, it helps businesses:
- Classify products and understand customs requirements with HS code classification tools and shipment guidance designed to reduce clearance risk.
- Estimate duties, taxes, and fees with tools that provide visibility into potential import costs before a shipment moves or a customer completes a purchase.
- Prepare available documentation more efficiently with guidance and tools that help businesses identify and complete the information needed for customs clearance.
- Manage import activity after shipment with visibility into shipment status, import activity, and duties and tax payments throughout the import process.
Get in touch with FedEx to see how FedEx Global Trade Navigator can help your business simplify international shipping and make more informed cross-border shipping decisions.
