The Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade's International Trade Technical Helpline (the “helpline”) is a Membership telephone helpline service provided by The Chartered Institute (“we” or “us”) as a membership benefit. The following terms and conditions (“International Trade Technical Helpline Terms & Conditions”) shall apply to the relationship between you and us in addition to your membership’s terms and conditions of use and any other applicable agreements which you may have entered into with us.

  • The service will be available only to Business Members (small, medium, large) and their Linked Affiliates. To use the service, you must have your business membership ID number.  Members of the Charted Institute can access the helpline for free as part of their membership. Retired, Affiliate, Student and Overseas memberships do not include free access to the International Trade Technical Helpline.
  • The International Trade Technical Helpline is operative between the hours of 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Thursday and 8:30am - 4pm on Friday excluding National Bank Holidays within the United Kingdom and between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day inclusive.
  • The service will allow members up to 20 minutes of live service from one of our international trade experts.
  • Where an agent is unable to handle the question live, a relevant alternate expert will be provided for the enquiry and a response will be provided to the member within 1 business day.
  • We will endeavor to respond to your enquiry within 48 business hours from receipt of your enquiry but there are a small number of occasions where a response may go over this timeline.
  • The service is not designed as a deep-dive consultancy assistance, but if this need is identified, the agents will advise the member of the best way that the Chartered Institute can support.
  • Members are advised to seek specialist advice where necessary. It is not the intention of the International Trade Technical Helpline to provide specialist advice but to provide general guidance only and therefore the service should not be relied on for this purpose.
  • On the rare occasion that the enquiry falls outside of the remit of the Chartered Institute, we will endeavour to direct you to an alternative source of information where possible. 
  • The calls are followed up by a brief email confirming agents have provided advice to the best of their ability within the timeframe and in line with the information provided by the member.
  • Any information or advice supplied by the Chartered Institute and its staff and representatives in response to this query is provided for general guidance only; the agent and organisation can accept no responsibility for the accuracy of the information provided, or liability for any consequences arising from the information supplied. All liability is excluded to the amount permissible by law. 
  • Any abuse of our agents will not be permitted and shall be investigated with utmost seriousness. Should this be verified, termination of membership or termination of Linked Affiliate account may be considered.
  • You should contact the helpline personally and not via a third party. Any information given is provided to and for your benefit alone and not for the benefit of family, friends and other third parties.
  • The intention of the International Trade Technical Helpline is to provide technical guidance in relation to international trade queries only and therefore the International Trade Technical Helpline will not be able to respond to any queries outside of this scope.  
  • In the unlikely event of a problem arising or your being dissatisfied with the service provided, we have a comprehensive complaints procedure. If you wish to make a formal complaint you should contact the client services team at clientservices@export.org.uk.
  • If any provision of these terms and conditions is found by any court, tribunal or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be wholly or partly illegal, invalid, void, voidable, unenforceable or unreasonable it shall to the extent of such illegality, invalidity, voidness, voidability, unenforceability or unreasonableness be deemed severable and the remaining provisions of these terms and conditions and the remainder of such provision shall continue in full force and effect.
  • The formation, existence, construction, performance, validity and all aspects of these terms and conditions shall be governed by English law and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
  • We reserve the right to amend these terms and conditions at any time by updating this page and you are advised to check this page regularly, as any updates will be binding upon you. In the event of any conflict between these helpline terms and conditions and your policy terms and conditions, the former shall prevail.