Minimising duties and taxes in a global supply chain

Radwell International stocks and sells new and surplus industrial machinery. They also have full component level repair capabilities with offices, warehouses and repair facilities in the UK, EU and USA. Although Radwell hold some stock in Germany it is often quicker to supply EU customers from the UK warehouse. However, if the goods are shipped DAP the customer has to pay import VAT and although they can reclaim it they complain. If Radwell were to deliver DDP they would be liable for the import VAT which would make a serious indent in their margins. Other questions that needed to be resolved included drop-shipping and how to reduce the incidence of eBay customers refusing orders when they learned they needed to pay import VAT. After 2 days at Radwell, the ITC wrote a comprehensive report was supplied outlining the options to solve the problems and recommendations about how to best implement them.