Mulai Lagi

Someone from Italy visited my site this week via the search "NAFTA preference override." I am going to assume that means someone is sitting at a desk in Rome right now trying to make sense of the crazy NAFTA marking rules and, in particular, the NAFTA preference override. I'm here to help, paisano. The first thing to understand is that the regular NAFTA rules of origin are designed only to tell you whether something is originating in North America. They do not tell you what country in North America. Normally, that would not be a big deal. Once you know it is originating, you could just apply the normal substantial transformation rules to figure out how to mark it. But, this is not normally. First, because Canada had a head start on duty reduction under the U.S. Canada Free Trade Agreement, the rates for Canada and Mexico were not always the same. Now, they are in all but a few sensitive products from Mexico. Second, there is a general understanding that Mexico and Canad...

Today I spoke at a seminar put on by the International Trade Club of Chicago. The topic was internal reviews and prior disclosures. Three hours listening to me seems like a lot, but I think it went well enough. I took a new approach on my PowerPoint slides. It is a long story, but I am convinced that in the hands of the unskilled ( like me), PowerPoint can suck the life out of a presentation. I've been doing some reading about this and I tried to emulate Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig today. Basically, I had no bullet points, no charts, no slide transitions, and no fancy fonts; just a few key words for each thought. Anyway, I think it was OK. I'll have to keep practicing the method. We had lots of good questions. Rather than find a search engine phrase for my Friday question, I'll just give you some from the meeting this morning. Why do I have to worry about privilege for an internal review? Because you may not want to turn the results over to Customs w...

Someone from Germany visited with the following search: "origin country customs marking." Glücklich zu helfen, Freund. U.S. law requires that all articles of foreign origin imported into the United States be marked with their country of origin. The marking must be permanent and conspicuous. For certain specific articles, Customs has specific marking requirements. This applies, for example, to watches and jewelry in the style of Native American wares. Also, Customs likes to see die cast or etched markings on pipes and the like. Bottom line is that it has to be permanent enough to reach the end user. Deciding on the correct country of origin is tricky. We already discussed NAFTA marking, which is wholly different, so that is not what I am talking about here. The country of origin of goods is generally the country in which the goods originate or last underwent a substantial transformation. So a coconut grown and harvested in Thailand is of Thai origin. No problem. Coconut mi...

I am not picking on Ford. It just happens that it has been the subject of a lot of activity lately and since I am not involved, I can talk about it. Plus, it has been interesting. Note to past Commenter Paul: Feel free to fill in gaps or disagree. The first of the recent Ford cases does not come from the Court of International Trade. Rather it is from the U.S. District Court in Michigan. The case comes out of an action for declaratory judgment Ford filed ahead of Customs suing it in El Paso for recordkeeping violations relating to NAFTA entries. The plaintiff in a declaratory judgment case essentially asks the court to declare its rights relative to the defendant. When allowed, declaratory judgment often takes the wind out of a potential suit and result in settlement. Ford assumes it is going to get sued for failing to produce backup documents supporting NAFTA certificates of origin for goods from a related party in Mexico. It assumes this based on the fact that it has received a m...

It's been a lousy summer, cycling wise. I have not had many opportunities to ride and my waistline is complaining about it. A got a flat about three weeks ago and did not get around to fixing it until Sunday. I hope to make up some miles in the fall, but I am not promising myself or anyone else. In the meantime, there were some interesting cycling stories in the paper (by which I mean the Chicago Tribune) this week. The first was another story on the sudden popularity of fixed gear bikes. Read that here: Look, Ma! No brakes Chicago Tribune. I may have mentioned that I final rode one of these. It belongs to my nephew who seems to be smack in the demographic in which fixies are popular. He is a 22 year old college kid living in Chicago. Riding it was disorienting at first. Even the process of getting on the bike required additional though. My usual habit of rolling forward while jumping on and then clicking into the pedals did not work because the pedals did not stop wh...

Liquidation is an odd concept in many ways. Liquidation is the final accounting of the amount of duties, fees, and taxes owed on an entry of merchandise. Each entry is liquidated individually. If your salary were subject to liquidation, you would have to file a tax return every pay day and wait for a tax bill or refund on each return. It is kind of crazy. Customs is experimenting with tools to move away from the entry-centric process. The programs include ACS Reconciliation and Periodic Monthly Payments and Statements. But, in today's environment, it is still important to understand liquidation because the liquidation of an entry triggers a number of deadlines. The most important deadline being the time to file a protest to challenge a decision of the Port Director. Two recent Court of International Trade Cases have taken a look at the importance of liquidation and an importer's obligation to track liquidations carefully. In Gerdau Ameristeel Corp. v. United States,...