Compliance paperwork can be one of the most confusing parts of working with overseas suppliers, mostly because certifications vary so widely by product category and destination market. Some, like general social compliance audits, apply broadly across almost any consumer goods category. Others are category-specific — chemical safety testing for cosmetics, for example, or restricted substance testing for footwear and apparel.
The practical rule of thumb: any certificate a supplier provides should be traceable to an accredited third-party auditor, dated within the last 12 months, and scoped to the specific factory that will actually produce your order — not a parent company or sister facility.