C-TPAT – Border Security Program
Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism is a voluntary, joint government-business partnership to help add to supply chain and increase border security. These and other “Trusted Trader” programs may become essential to your organization.
Product Classification
In the context of importing and exporting, assigning the proper classification codes to your product will ultimately determine the amount of duties or taxes you or your customer will pay on the products importation; whether or not an export license is required; whether or not a product qualifies for special treatment under a Free Trade Agreement, and whether or not your product is subject to a myriad of other government agency’s rules and regulations.
Customs and other government agency communications, investigations and regulatory audits.
Communicating with a government agency isn’t always as simple as picking up the phone or sending an e-mail. Many agencies have procedures on how to communicate with them and in what form. An agencies simple request for information could turn into a full-blown investigation into your activities depending on your answer.
Duty Drawback
Essentially this is a program where Customs refunds you 99% of duties paid on imports when exported. The lure is that a first-time claimant can submit a claim against the past three years creating a possible windfall. The program is not easily created or managed, and as you can imagine with all that money at stake there are countless companies willing to take a percentage.
Foreign Trade Zones and Other Duty deferral programs
A Foreign-Trade Zone is a dedicated area where goods can land, be repackaged, modified, manipulated, relabeled, manufactured further and re-exported without customs authorities “stepping-in”. A FTZ is especially useful to firms that import components in order to manufacture finished products for export. In addition, Bonded warehouses and Temporary importation bonds offer opportunities to avoid, delay and reduce duty payment for one year on certain eligible goods such as those intended for temporary import and subsequent export or for temporary transit within the U.S.
Free Trade Agreements
Free Trade Agreements (FTA) make the evening news, just about every night and for good reason. FTAs benefit U.S. exporters and investors. Simply put FTAs typically address a wide variety of government activity. One example is the reduction or elimination of tariffs charged on all qualified products coming from the other country. For example, a country that normally charges a tariff of 5% of the value of the incoming product will eliminate that tariff for products that originate (as defined in the FTA) in the United States.
Some other types of opportunities frequently found in FTAs include:
Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism is a voluntary, joint government-business partnership to help add to supply chain and increase border security. These and other “Trusted Trader” programs may become essential to your organization.
Product Classification
In the context of importing and exporting, assigning the proper classification codes to your product will ultimately determine the amount of duties or taxes you or your customer will pay on the products importation; whether or not an export license is required; whether or not a product qualifies for special treatment under a Free Trade Agreement, and whether or not your product is subject to a myriad of other government agency’s rules and regulations.
Customs and other government agency communications, investigations and regulatory audits.
Communicating with a government agency isn’t always as simple as picking up the phone or sending an e-mail. Many agencies have procedures on how to communicate with them and in what form. An agencies simple request for information could turn into a full-blown investigation into your activities depending on your answer.
Duty Drawback
Essentially this is a program where Customs refunds you 99% of duties paid on imports when exported. The lure is that a first-time claimant can submit a claim against the past three years creating a possible windfall. The program is not easily created or managed, and as you can imagine with all that money at stake there are countless companies willing to take a percentage.
Foreign Trade Zones and Other Duty deferral programs
A Foreign-Trade Zone is a dedicated area where goods can land, be repackaged, modified, manipulated, relabeled, manufactured further and re-exported without customs authorities “stepping-in”. A FTZ is especially useful to firms that import components in order to manufacture finished products for export. In addition, Bonded warehouses and Temporary importation bonds offer opportunities to avoid, delay and reduce duty payment for one year on certain eligible goods such as those intended for temporary import and subsequent export or for temporary transit within the U.S.
Free Trade Agreements
Free Trade Agreements (FTA) make the evening news, just about every night and for good reason. FTAs benefit U.S. exporters and investors. Simply put FTAs typically address a wide variety of government activity. One example is the reduction or elimination of tariffs charged on all qualified products coming from the other country. For example, a country that normally charges a tariff of 5% of the value of the incoming product will eliminate that tariff for products that originate (as defined in the FTA) in the United States.
Some other types of opportunities frequently found in FTAs include:
- the ability for a U.S. company to bid on certain government procurements in the FTA partner country;
- the ability for a U.S. investor to get prompt, adequate, and effective compensation if its investment in the FTA partner country is taken by the government (expropriated);
- the ability for U.S. service suppliers to supply their services in the FTA partner country;
- protection and enforcement of American-owned intellectual property rights in the FTA partner country; and
- the ability for U.S. exporters to participate in the development of product standards in the FTA partner country.