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Mike Flaskerud has been around long enough to know a few tricks when it comes to getting his imported freight cleared through U.S. authorities.

As a customs broker, it’s his job to get incoming shipments through customs and to the importer as fast as possible.

“What I like about this work is that there are always new challenges,” he said. “No day is ever the same; there’s always something new coming up.”

Freight forwarders and customs brokers like Flaskerud are the behind-the-scenes operators who facilitate the smooth flow of an enormous quantity of goods in and out of Los Angeles. They schedule and consolidate shipments, take care that local and international shipping regulations are met, and prepare and audit the complex documentation that is required for international shipments.

In light of the Asian financial crisis and the resulting ballooning of the trade deficit it’s becoming an ever more challenging job.

“The biggest problem for us is that ships are coming in completely filled up, and it has become more and more difficult for importers to book space,” said Guy Fox, chief executive of Redondo Beach-based Global Transportation Services Inc. (which up until recently employed Flaskerud). “We need to book container space two to three weeks in advance, whereas before it took only a few days.”

The competition for space is driving up the prices that steamship companies charge for shipping goods from Asia. In addition, since the strong dollar and slumping Asian economies make American imports prohibitively expensive in Asia, hardly anything is going back the other way.

Peak season is in full swing in the ports as department stores stock up for the back-to-school sales and the Christmas season. Although delays have not reached the crisis level of last year, Fox expects back-up problems in the next couple of months.

An estimated $190 billion in international trade will pass through the Los Angeles Customs District this year, according to the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County. About 1,000 businesses locally are active in freight forwarding and customs brokerage.

The companies range from tiny, one-man operations to billion-dollar, international corporations. Their terrain covers both the ports and the airports.

One recent day, Flaskerud got a phone call from a customer that his shipment an Otacanthus plant from Thailand had arrived at Los Angeles International Airport.

Instead of waiting for U.S. Customs agents to clear the shipment with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he offered to drive from Global Transportation to the airport, and personally ferry the blue ornamental shrub to the USDA’s Inglewood warehouse.

Flaskerud says that kind of personalized service helps make a successful customs broker. So is the ability to regroup when problems arise as they did in this case.

When he arrived at the Inglewood warehouse with the plant, the U.S. Department of Agriculture raised a red flag: the shipment was lacking proper import permits.

Without permits, the USDA would be forced to destroy the plant not the kind of news Flaskerud wanted to tell his customer, Bodger Seeds Ltd. in El Monte.

“It’s an importer’s biggest worry, that a shipment gets lost or spoiled because a forwarder forgets to send along all the required documentation,” says Bodger Seeds’ chief executive, Kim Bodger.

Flaskerud had to act fast.

First, he called his office to see if anyone knew where the documents might be. No one did. The shipper in Thailand couldn’t be reached because of the time difference.

Finally, he called the airline for permission to open the box. In there, with the plant, were the permits. Six hours later, the plant was in Bodger’s El Monte greenhouse.

Most shipments are more routine. In another case, Flaskerud received a fax from Hemzaden B.V. in the Netherlands indicating that it had five bags of marigold and pansy seeds for Bodger.

Flaskerud contacted Kim Bodger and asked him whether he wanted his shipment sent immediately, or whether he wanted to have it consolidated with other shipments.

The latter alternative is less expensive but might take longer. Bodger decided he wanted his seeds as soon as possible and gave Flaskerud the go-ahead to have them shipped immediately.

The agent in the Netherlands determined that the best route was via London, on a Virgin Atlantic cargo plane. The Dutch exporter filled out a commercial invoice for customs and an air waybill, stating the nature of the cargo and where it was going.

Those documents would authorize Global to take possession of the seeds upon their arrival at LAX.

“The worst-case scenario is when a shipment arrives without any documentation indicating what it is and what it’s worth,” says Flaskerud.

The Netherlands agent sent a fax to Flaskerud notifying him of the flight information for the seed shipment. When the plane arrived at LAX, the USDA checked the air waybills and put a hold on all cargo that needed to be inspected.

The inspection process can take up to 24 hours, and in urgent cases, Flaskerud can expedite the process by asking for permission to take a shipment to the USDA facilities in Inglewood for inspection, as he did with the plant from Thailand.

With the shipment of seeds from the Netherlands, there was no such urgency and no need for Flaskerud to be at the airport. Instead, the USDA inspected the seeds at the terminal and released them to the airline.

The airline, in turn, notified Flaskerud that he could collect the documents for the seeds upon payment of the airline charges. Flaskerud sent a messenger with a check to pick up the documents. Once he had those in hand, Flaskerud dispatched Global’s in-house trucker to the airport to pick up the seeds and to deliver them to Bodger Seeds.

Finally, Flaskerud prepared the invoice for the shipment, which came to $504, including Global’s fees.

Forty-eight hours after the shipment had landed at LAX, they arrived at Bodger Seeds’ doorstep in El Monte.

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