Michael Xue 
Senior Trade Compliance Manager, Northern Asia
Ingersoll Rand (Shanghai)
Tell us about yourself:
I came from a little village along the Yangtze river between Nanjing and Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province, did my primary school in a bigger village, middle school in a small town, high school in the county town, then finally Zhejiang university in Hangzhou. I love backpack hiking, one of my dream is to take a Gap-Year to see the world with my wife and kids.
Tell us what a day is like in your field:
Trade Compliance has an unique role, confuses many people – Part of Logistics? Supply Chain? Finance? Tax? Legal?… Personally, I have been working in all of them! All of them can be both “correct” and “wrong”, depending on your company org structure and your understanding of Trade Compliance. I feel very proud because of this – I am cross-functional!
Tell us what you like about working at your company:
Ingersoll Rand is an US listed big firm, compared to my past employers, big difference in both organization structure (Acquired VS. Organic Growth) and industry (Machinery VS. Semi-conductor). A very interesting company to work for, not only for experiencing different company culture but also for focusing on different trade compliance areas.
Tell us what you would change in the industry:
Trade Compliance is relatively new, companies are dying for qualified Trade Compliance professionals, and I am sure there are many people trying to be a Trade Compliance professionals. As an industry, I think we Trade Compliance professionals really need a clear and higher standards, some sort of accreditation may be helpful. I hope the institute can help to make some progress in this regard.
Give us one tip/best practice:
With more and more Free Trade Agreements been signed/implemented, FTA will be an increasingly focus area in the foresee future. It is an good way to save duty for your company and for your customers. But, as a Trade Compliance professional, never forget the “Compliance”! We have to ensure that our company follow the rules! Customs do not give away money just like that! Standardization, Training, Auditing, Record Keeping, are all helpful, but there is one thing I want to emphasis is: unless we have a written statement from the vendor verifying that an input/material is eligible for FTA, we must assume it is non-originating (not eligible), regardless of where the material is produced. It is volunteering, we only certify a shipment if it does meet the originating rules!
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