TradeLane

The passage of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (signed in February 2016) seems to have prompted a renewed effort by CBP to enforce regulations regarding the importation of “Merchandise Produced By Convict, Forced, or Indentured Labor.”  We have seen many instances over the last few weeks where importers have received CF28s asking about steps the importer has taken to ensure that their supply chains are free of child, forced, or convict labor.  Some of the demands are exceedingly broad:

Regulations, rules, requirements – the life of an international trader bumps up against them all the time. It is our job to make sure that our organizations understand them, follow them, and stay out of trouble.

As soon as you have exhaustively explained how EVERYTHING that is imported into the U.S. must be marked with its country of origin, or how you can NEVER export anything to Cuba, or why you ALWAYS pay duty when you import something that some know-it-all brings up – the EXCEPTION.

Making a gasket for a 1958 Plymouth Belvedere’s carburetor from an old piece of cardboard is a typical job for an auto mechanic’s apprentice in Cuba, where parts for American cars that were stranded on the island since 1960 are almost impossible to come by. Cuban mechanics have all acquired and perfected unique skills ever since the embargo was implemented by the U.S. in retaliation for Cuba’s nationalization of American-owned oil refineries. Now, talk of the embargo being lifted has buoyed the hopes of many U.S. auto parts companies that sell after-market parts, and U.S. classic car buffs are salivating at the chance to acquire classic Fords, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Cadillacs in ready-to-restore condition.

But not so fast…

I’m at the point in teaching my 16-year-old daughter to drive that we’re now out on highways, making the long drives to practice staying in lanes, merging onto expressways, and staying within the speed limit, so we have time to talk a little about things other than watching out for bicyclists and what to do if a squirrel jumps out in front of you (bye, bye squirrel). Lately, we’ve been chatting about TV shows she used to watch when she was little – Teletubbies, Zoboomafoo, and, a perennial favorite, Thomas the Tank Engine. Sir Topham Hatt, the director of the railway, reserves his highest praise for the trains in very unique situations, such as pulling a load of school children up a steep hill, or helping a larger engine push an extremely heavy load of coal. At the conclusion of the episode, he would intone, “You are a Really Useful Engine.”

Compliance manuals are excellent vehicles to help importers and exporters ensure that they are doing everything they can to operate in conformity with the various laws and regulations under which they operate. The trick, however, is in deciding what actually needs to go into the manual.

A good jumping off point is to take a realistic look at the way your enterprise operates, and then ascertain what kinds of risk your various activities present to a regulator.