On August 21st, Florida Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association (FCBF) welcomed the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce to their General Membership Meeting Luncheon as new members. The luncheon took place at the Doubletree Miami Mart Airport Hotel as Ceci Velasco, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Susana Peñaranda, Administrative Assistant/International Commerce Liaison were introduced to existing FCBF members including air carriers, terminal operators, port associations, freight forwarders, brokers, law firms, trade related organizations and local chambers of commerce.
Striving to facilitate international commerce business in the region, Velasco and Peñaranda announced the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce’s launch of an International Commerce Service offering to seal and notarize a series of export documentations. There are two common export documentations currently sealed by the Chamber available to the public. A Certificate of Origin is a document required by foreign governments attesting that the goods in a particular export shipment have been wholly produced, manufactured or processed in a particular country. The certificate is signed by the exporter, notarized and validated by a Chamber in order to be acceptable and valid. With an increase of trade in South Florida, a second Certificate frequently requested is the Certificate of Free Sale. This particular certificate is evidence that goods, such as food items and/or cosmetics, are legally sold or distributed in the open market, freely without restriction and approved by the regulatory authorities in the United States. The Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce is offering to seal the Certificate of Origin at $10 per shipment and $25 for Certificates of Free Sale.
Both highly requested export documentations are synonymous with the increase in trade South Florida has experienced within the last year. According to Mimi Whitefield, Journalist of the Miami Herald in an article titled South Florida trade shattered records in 2012, It was a golden year for international trade through the Miami Customs District in 2012, as South Florida airports and seaports handled a record $124.73 billion worth of trade and cracked into the nation’s Top 10 customs districts for the first time”. Numerous reports estimate for trade to increase within the next few years. According to Miami-Dade County, “Port Miami will be one of only three U.S Atlantic ports to be at 50 feet when the expanded Panama Canal opens in early 2015. The deeper depth will allow Port Miami to accommodate new, larger Post-Panamax vessels that will be traversing the Canal. As the closest U.S port of Panama, PortMiami expects to benefit from increased trade.
For more information on the International Commerce Service, contact Assistant@miamibeachchamber.com
