Compliance & Screening Checks

Alongside the tax and cross-document checks, CargoLint screens each document for restricted content: parties on sanctions lists, protected species, and goods that need a regulatory certification. The goal is to surface anything that should stop a shipment before you file it. Like every check in CargoLint, these are advisory - they tell you what to verify, not whether something is lawful.

How findings are graded

• Blocking - a finding serious enough to hold the shipment until you resolve it: a sanctioned-party match, a CITES Appendix I species, a missing required certification, or a dangerous-goods disclosure problem. A blocking finding on any single document blocks the whole shipment, wherever it sits.
• Warning - worth verifying but not blocking, such as a CITES Appendix II/III species that likely needs a permit.
• Note - informational.

What gets screened

Sanctioned and denied parties

CargoLint screens the shipper, consignee, and notify party names on a document against international sanctions and denied-party lists - OpenSanctions, the US OFAC SDN list, the EU consolidated list, UN Security Council lists, and the UK list. Matching is fuzzy, so close spelling variants (“ACME INC” vs “Acme Inc.”) still match, and a hit is flagged as blocking with the list it matched and a similarity score.

Because the match is on the name, a hit is a prompt to verify the party, not a determination that it’s the sanctioned entity - two companies can share a name. Clear it with your compliance team or broker before proceeding.

Protected species (CITES)

CargoLint scans line-item descriptions for species listed under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), by scientific or common name, using the official Species+ dataset.

• Appendix I - commercial trade is generally prohibited. Flagged as blocking; clear with permits before processing.
• Appendix II / III - regulated. Flagged as a warning to confirm the required CITES permits are on file.

Regulated goods and missing certifications

CargoLint matches the document’s HS codes (and the destination) against goods that require a regulatory certification - FDA prior notice, CE marking, an EU dual-use export license (Annex I), and BIS-controlled items. If the document carries an HS code that needs a certification but no matching certification appears on it, that’s flagged as blocking, naming the agency and the document expected.

Dangerous goods disclosure

This one runs across the whole shipment, not a single document. If some documents in a shipment mention dangerous goods and others don’t, or the documents disagree on the UN number, hazard class, or packing group, CargoLint flags the disclosure as incomplete or inconsistent - blocking until reconciled. It reads what the documents say (UN numbers, hazard keywords); it checks that the disclosure is present and consistent, not whether the values are correct against the transport regulations.

The data behind the checks

• Sanctions: OpenSanctions (refreshed daily) plus the OFAC, EU, UN, and UK consolidated lists.
• Species: Species+, the official CITES dataset, covering all three appendices with scientific and common names.
• Regulated goods: US FDA program codes (via CBP), the EU dual-use Annex I, EU CE-mark requirements, and BIS-controlled items.

What CargoLint deliberately does not do

• It does not make a legal determination. A name match, a species mention, or a missing certification is a prompt to check - not proof, an export-control ruling, or a customs decision.
• It screens party names, not destination or origin countries, against embargoes.
• For dangerous goods it checks disclosure and consistency, not validity against the UN Model Regulations or the mode-specific tables (IATA, IMDG, DOT).
• It does not perform full export-control classification (for example EAR or USML category assignment).

Important: All compliance and screening findings are advisory. They tell you what to verify before filing - they are not legal advice, an export-control determination, or a customs ruling. Confirm restricted-party, species, and licensing questions with your compliance team, broker, or the relevant authority.

What you see in the app

Screening findings appear in the Document Issues panel alongside the other checks. Each shows its severity, a plain-language message, the field involved, and the evidence behind it - which list a party matched, the CITES appendix, or the certification an HS code requires. A blocking finding marks the shipment as having critical issues until it’s resolved on the document itself.

What’s next

• Shipment Consistency Checks - The cross-document checks, and how a blocking issue affects the whole shipment
• Tax Compliance Checks - The tax checks that run alongside screening
• How to Review Documents - Resolve flagged issues during review
• Document Statuses - How a document moves through the pipeline