// ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James R. Ferry II

CCS · CES · CIT

Customs & trade-compliance author, advisor, and founder of The Trade Underground and Trade Underground Press.

Who I Am

James R. Ferry II has spent twenty-five years inside the machinery of global trade — not watching it from a law-firm window, but working the audit rooms, the detention holds, and the enforcement cases that never make the press releases.

He is the founder of Ferry Trade Group, a Denver-based customs and trade-compliance advisory, and serves on the Board of Directors of the World Trade Center Denver. His analysis has appeared in the Journal of Commerce.

Credentials

What I Write

Through Trade Underground Press, James R. Ferry II writes the field manuals he wished had existed when he was building compliance programs from scratch — not theory, not checklists lifted from the Federal Register, but operational playbooks professionals can open on a Monday morning and actually use.

• The Washing Machine War — smuggling, enforcement, and the dual-use parts that arm the world’s wars.
• The Trade Underground — how customs enforcement actually works.
• The Tariff Engineers — turning customs, sourcing, and red tape into margin.
• Reasonable Care — the broker-oversight playbook for importers.
• The CF-28 Handbook — reading and surviving a CBP Request for Information.
• Border Certainty — the executive guide to customs risk.
• The Quantitative Shield, Incoterms® in Action, The Accidental Importer, Mud, Ice & Iron, and Foreign Countries Don’t Pay Tariffs. You Do.

Work With Me

Beyond the books, James R. Ferry II advises importers, brokers, and executives on customs risk, tariff strategy, and enforcement response through Ferry Trade Group. Every engagement holds to the same standard as the books: specific, defensible, and ready when CBP shows up.

Reach James at james@tradeunderground.com.