The first thing you should do when considering whether to export your product to the United States is determine whether the product can be marketed or sold in the United States, or if there are license or registration requirements in connection with marketing or selling your product here.  From time to time, I have seen companies go through the time and expense of setting up operations here or take other significant steps, only to discover that their product either needs prior approval/registration to be marketed or sold in the US or can’t be imported here at all.

There is an obvious reason to think of this issue first–you don’t want to waste time, effort or money if they US market is closed to your product, or if your product needs a license/registration to be sold here.  You should take into account the time and cost of a license/registration process when building and analyzing the economic/business case for expansion to the US market. Another, perhaps less obvious, reason is timing–you want to build enough lead time for your product launch in the US to account for any licensing/registration issues. You don’t want to leap into the US market without having a properly registered/licensed product.

Many products don’t need a license or registration to be marketed and sold here. But several products do, including products in areas where Irish and Northern Irish companies do well:

• Pharmaceuticals and medical devices require authorization from the FDA to be imported, marketed, and sold here.
• Certain ingredients in cosmetics are not allowed in the US (some ingredients may be banned on a state-by-state basis).
• Food and drink imports may need prior approval from the US Department of Agriculture.
• Medicinal foods require prior approval from the FDA.
• Certain consumer products–especially those that are used by children–may need to be reviewed by the US Consumer Products Safety Commission.

There are other products that require license/registration to be marketed and sold here.

The primary observation of this post is that you should be sure whether, and on what terms, your product may be imported, marketed, and sold in the US before you set up a affiliate, create a distribution network or take any other substantive step to expand here. It’s a small up-front expense compared to the expense of finding out later and having to correct a mistake.