Making trade compliance accessible, and reducing the complexity that gets in the way.
Rayer Trade Advisory gives importers and exporters the judgment of a full-time trade compliance director, on the hours you actually need to get your program from reactive to defensible.
Enforcement is intensifying across CBP’s priority trade issues. A program built for last year’s audit risk isn’t necessarily built for this year’s.
You can outsource your entries and your trade program administration.
You can’t outsource the internal processes that have to be built to support them.
Compliance work that holds up under audit
Eight ways to bring senior trade compliance judgment into your operation, scoped to how much exposure you’re carrying and how far your program has to go.
FTZ Strategy & Implementation
Zone activation, admission and withdrawal procedures, in-bond mechanics, and the ERP integration work that determines whether your zone actually saves money or just adds paperwork.
Classification
HTS classification review grounded in binding ruling precedent, country-of-origin determinations, and the documentation to defend both under audit.
Duty Drawback
Claim development and recovery for duties paid on goods that are exported, destroyed, or used in manufacturing, built to hold up on review, not just get filed. Includes a program assessment: are you maximizing your recovery, or leaving money on the table?
Compliance Assessments & Gap Analysis
A structured read of where your program actually stands against your real entry data, followed by a roadmap that sequences the fixes by exposure, not by convenience. Includes prior disclosure recommendations where warranted, and broker audits to confirm the filings being made on your behalf actually match your instructions.
SOPs, Process & Training
Written procedures, broker instruction letters, and business process documentation built for how your team actually operates, plus training that changes what people do, not just what they know.
Trade Technology & ACE Support
Implementation of the trade compliance technology stack, ACE reporting, screening tools, and program platforms, plus the security and preference programs that go unused when there’s no one resourced to run them.
Customized Training
Tailored training delivered by a dynamic presenter for any organization and any size of audience: import and export compliance, HTS classification, incoterms, duty drawback, and foreign-trade zone operator responsibilities. Kate has facilitated numerous LCB and CCS accredited trainings and builds curriculum around your team’s actual gaps.
Project Management & Thought Leadership
Roadmap sequencing and hands-on project management for compliance builds, backed by an active speaking and writing presence on tariff policy and CBP enforcement trends.
Any industry. Any size. The same gap.
Compliance programs built and run for distributors, complex manufacturers, and multi-entity importers and exporters, from startups and small businesses to independently owned operations and Fortune 500 organizations. Most of these companies already know they need a real trade program. What’s usually missing is the internal expertise, and the technology behind it, to build and run one. That gap is exactly where this work lives.
Kate is the founder and principal of Rayer Trade Advisory.
She holds a Licensed Customs Broker credential and a Certified Customs Specialist designation, with more than twenty years leading regulatory and brokerage functions inside global logistics organizations. Her work centers on foreign-trade zones, harmonized tariff classification, duty drawback, and the kind of CBP enforcement exposure that only shows up under audit.
Your interests stay at the center of every recommendation, with expertise in your corner and in your boardroom, so you stay informed on what’s happening in trade policy and what might be next, with enough lead time to build contingency plans instead of reacting under pressure. Everything is measured against the reasonable care standard CBP holds every importer of record to, because that’s what actually protects you under audit. Compliance only helps if people can act on it, which means clear communication and the executive presence a boardroom expects, translating complexity into decisions your team can actually make.
Embedded fractional leadership, or focused project engagements, for operations that need senior judgment without a full-time headcount, building the compliance assessments, SOPs, and roadmaps that turn a program from reactive to defensible.
Kate is active in NAFTZ committee work and speaks regularly on tariff policy at industry venues, including World Trade Center Denver and the Denver Council on Foreign Relations.
Insights
Notes on tariff policy, CBP enforcement, and the mechanics of trade compliance, written for people who have to act on it, not just read about it.
Where to find me
Past and upcoming appearances on tariff policy, FTZ mechanics, and trade compliance strategy.