Friday's Questions: Marking
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 milk canned in Malaysia from Thai coconuts is a different issue. Here, the question is whether the coconuts from Thailand undergo a substantial transformation in Malaysia A substantial transformation is a change in name, character, or use. Given that the name of the product has changed from coconut to coconut milk, that it is no longer a raw agricultural product but has become a canned commodity, and that it can't be used to to make a bikini top, I conclude it is a product of Malaysia and should be so marked.
The coconut milk will need to be marked in a conspicuous place. It could be printed on the label so long as it is easily visible and permanent. If lots of cans of coconut milk are packaged together in crates for shipping, the outermost container must also be labeled with "Malaysia."
There are lots of exceptions and refinements to the marking requirements. For example, if the importer is the last person in the U.S. to get the product in its imported form, the goods may be exempt from marking. Another example is that replacement parts made in the same country as the machine they go in need not be marked. One rule that trips people up is that if there is a U.S. address (or other conflicting marking), then the origin label must be close to that address, in type that is at least as large, and include the phrase "Product of . . ." or "Made in . . ." on the origin marking.
Some products just don't need to be marked. These are on the so-called J-list. A lot of these things are just too small or there is some other reason why marking does not make sense.
Lastly, none of this relates to the use of the phrase "Made in U.S.A." For obvious reasons, that is not generally a Customs issue. It belongs to the Federal Trade Commission. Bottom line on that: if all or substantially all of your labor and materials is not from the U.S., you don't qualify. Think about that the next time you wander through a department or hardware store. How much faith do you have in most of those "Made in U.S.A." claims?
Last night I had a close encounter with a spider. Normally, this would not merit any discussion. In most cases, when I find a spider that has taken up residence in my house, I scoop it up and toss it outside to fend for itself. I believe the spider PR that they eat things we like even less than spiders.
But this was different.
My new roommate was big.
Really big. I looked into its eight eyes and I saw no fear.
To get this into perspective, we are not talking Clint Eastwood's Tarantula. But, we could easily be talking about an extra from William Shatner's Kingdom of the Spiders. This spider claimed Peter Parker as a dependent on its last tax return.
The spider sat in a plastic bin full of toys, mostly of the Play-Doh genre. I could not reach in with a shoe, newspaper, or other suitable blunt instrument as the spider was in a crevice between some containers.
So, I did exactly what a third world dictator would do. I gassed the S.O.B. More specifically, I sprayed it with a product cleverly called Spider Kill (note to producer: you must have the worst corporate web site in history). I have used this stuff, which quite literally smells like a used diaper, on my boat to control spiders. If left unchecked, tend to grow fat and ugly all over the place.
On the boat, I have grown quite accustomed to picking the critters up and tossing them overboard. Often, they are immediately gulped down by a bluegill or carp. But, I was not going near this thing. First, I am fairly certain it could bite. Second, I am also certain that it could jump up to my face, insert some sort of tube down my throat, and lay an egg that would eventually hatch into something that would burst from my chest, most likely while in court. While I would like to be like Lance, that means Armstrong not Hendriksen.
Having stunned the beast with chemical weapons, I took the entire bin outside and dumped it out. This allowed me to get a good look at it. Of course, the thing, like any good Alien, would not die. Rather, it started to scamper away. At which point, it was impacted by the sole of my shoe. May it rest in peace. I have since decontaminated the toys and the bin.
After extensive Google research, I have decided that the spider was a dotted wolf (Hogna punctulata) which "hunts by night and hides by day." Nice to know.
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 milk canned in Malaysia from Thai coconuts is a different issue. Here, the question is whether the coconuts from Thailand undergo a substantial transformation in Malaysia A substantial transformation is a change in name, character, or use. Given that the name of the product has changed from coconut to coconut milk, that it is no longer a raw agricultural product but has become a canned commodity, and that it can't be used to to make a bikini top, I conclude it is a product of Malaysia and should be so marked.
The coconut milk will need to be marked in a conspicuous place. It could be printed on the label so long as it is easily visible and permanent. If lots of cans of coconut milk are packaged together in crates for shipping, the outermost container must also be labeled with "Malaysia."
There are lots of exceptions and refinements to the marking requirements. For example, if the importer is the last person in the U.S. to get the product in its imported form, the goods may be exempt from marking. Another example is that replacement parts made in the same country as the machine they go in need not be marked. One rule that trips people up is that if there is a U.S. address (or other conflicting marking), then the origin label must be close to that address, in type that is at least as large, and include the phrase "Product of . . ." or "Made in . . ." on the origin marking.
Some products just don't need to be marked. These are on the so-called J-list. A lot of these things are just too small or there is some other reason why marking does not make sense.
Lastly, none of this relates to the use of the phrase "Made in U.S.A." For obvious reasons, that is not generally a Customs issue. It belongs to the Federal Trade Commission. Bottom line on that: if all or substantially all of your labor and materials is not from the U.S., you don't qualify. Think about that the next time you wander through a department or hardware store. How much faith do you have in most of those "Made in U.S.A." claims?
Last night I had a close encounter with a spider. Normally, this would not merit any discussion. In most cases, when I find a spider that has taken up residence in my house, I scoop it up and toss it outside to fend for itself. I believe the spider PR that they eat things we like even less than spiders.
But this was different.
My new roommate was big.
Really big. I looked into its eight eyes and I saw no fear.
To get this into perspective, we are not talking Clint Eastwood's Tarantula. But, we could easily be talking about an extra from William Shatner's Kingdom of the Spiders. This spider claimed Peter Parker as a dependent on its last tax return.
The spider sat in a plastic bin full of toys, mostly of the Play-Doh genre. I could not reach in with a shoe, newspaper, or other suitable blunt instrument as the spider was in a crevice between some containers.
So, I did exactly what a third world dictator would do. I gassed the S.O.B. More specifically, I sprayed it with a product cleverly called Spider Kill (note to producer: you must have the worst corporate web site in history). I have used this stuff, which quite literally smells like a used diaper, on my boat to control spiders. If left unchecked, tend to grow fat and ugly all over the place.
On the boat, I have grown quite accustomed to picking the critters up and tossing them overboard. Often, they are immediately gulped down by a bluegill or carp. But, I was not going near this thing. First, I am fairly certain it could bite. Second, I am also certain that it could jump up to my face, insert some sort of tube down my throat, and lay an egg that would eventually hatch into something that would burst from my chest, most likely while in court. While I would like to be like Lance, that means Armstrong not Hendriksen.
Having stunned the beast with chemical weapons, I took the entire bin outside and dumped it out. This allowed me to get a good look at it. Of course, the thing, like any good Alien, would not die. Rather, it started to scamper away. At which point, it was impacted by the sole of my shoe. May it rest in peace. I have since decontaminated the toys and the bin.
After extensive Google research, I have decided that the spider was a dotted wolf (Hogna punctulata) which "hunts by night and hides by day." Nice to know.
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