We are licensed clearing agents and we file the declaration, pay the duty on your behalf where you have asked us to, and collect the cargo.
Half of our clearance work is done before anything arrives. We read the commercial invoice and the packing list, put every line under the right tariff heading, and give you the duty figure in writing. An importer who finds out the duty at the counter has already lost the argument about whether the price was worth it.
The three things that hold a consignment here, in order of how often we see them: a value on the invoice that does not match what was paid, a description too vague to classify, and a missing permit for something the importer did not know needed one. All three are cheap to fix a fortnight early and expensive to fix with the cargo in the yard.
Where a valuation is queried we prepare the response and we attend with it. We will also tell you when a query is correct and the right move is to pay it.