Validated Export License: A document issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is required for commodities deemed important to national security, foreign-policy objectives, or protecting domestic supplies of strategic materials. Constitutes permission to export a specific product to a specific party. Exporter applies for license, which must be returned to Bureau of Export Administration after completing specified shipments.

Vanning: Stowing cargo in a container.

Variable Cost: Costs that vary directly with the level of activity within a short time. Examples include costs of moving cargo inland on trains or trucks, stevedoring in some ports, and short-term equipment leases. For business analysis, all costs are either defined as variable or fixed. For a business to break even, all fixed costs must be covered. For profit, all variable costs must be recovered.

Ventilated Container: A container designed with openings in the side and/or end walls to admit the ingress of outside air when the doors are closed.

Vessel Supplies for Immediate Exportation (VSIE): Allows equipment and supplies arriving at one port to be loaded on a vessel, aircraft, etc., for its exclusive use and to be exported from the same port.

Vessel Manifest: The international carrier is obligated to make declarations of the ship's crew and contents at both the port of departure and arrival. The vessel manifest lists various details about each shipment by bill of lading number. Obviously, the bill of lading serves as the core source from which the manifest is created.

Viz: Namely. Used in tariffs to specify commodities.