TradeLane

I’m from Massachusetts. I grew up with snow and ice. However, I guess I have lost my edge since I have been living in Singapore for the past six years. At the moment, I am in Seoul Korea celebrating the opening of Tradewin Korea and it’s cold…! It is about 25°F (-4°C), which my head tells me is really not that cold but my body tells me differently. My boss (Boston based) says I’ve developed ‘thin blood’ living in the tropics…maybe so.

Last April I wrote a blog post, ‘Springtime in Shanghai’, celebrating the opening of Tradewin China. I thought it would be appropriate to do the same now that we are opening Tradewin Korea! 

So does the expression, “don’t blink or you’ll miss it,” ring true with anyone? Like your daughter was two, you blinked, and now she’s a freshman in high school? That would be me! That is so not the case with the reconciliation prototype. I have been blinking for almost 18 years and for the most part, the prototype remains largely unchanged.

So, I don’t blame those of you that haven’t reviewed the January 13, 2016 draft release of the Reconciliation Entry Summary Create/Update ACE ABI CATAIR document. It’s easy to miss things you aren’t expecting or looking for. If you are not familiar with the CATAIR, think CFR’s for programmers. I know, yawn.

The “encouragements” that Adam Smith refers to are none other than Duty Drawback. In the United States, drawback has been a fixed part of trade policy since 1789 when the Founding Fathers understood that a thriving domestic economy required robust international trade. 

By allowing exporters of products to draw back duty imposed upon its initial importation, it puts those exporters on an equal footing with their overseas competitors. 

Simply put, better-priced products sell, well, better.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is gaining momentum. If “TPP” isn’t as popular as “lol”, it will be soon. That’s because the TPP is a big deal. We’ll be doing several blogs over the coming months as additional details regarding the Agreement become known so you can stay up to date. 

For now, let’s start with the basics. The original plan of a four-nation pact between Singapore, New Zealand, Chile, and Brunei has grown to be a 12 country partnership impacting 800 million consumers, and now includes the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Peru, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Australia. Together, this makes it the largest regional trade accord in history, with a combined GDP of 28 Trillion USD. To put that into perspective, that is 40% of all Global GDP, 33% of global trade, and accounts for 40% of US Imports and Exports. 

Over the recent holidays, I was having a discussion with my wife regarding how different cultures celebrate and which days are the most important. Being American, my family has always placed a certain emphasis on Christmas Eve. We have dinner together and open one present that evening, while reserving Christmas Day for a leisure breakfast, late lunch, and a trip to the cinema in the afternoon. My wife is Colombian and had a different experience growing up. In Colombia, they do not do a lot to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve; all of the festivities take place on Christmas Day. Since we recently moved to the UK, we were both looking forward to the emphasis on Boxing Day. 

The European Commission, however, has let us know that they celebrate Christmas on December 29^th and provided the trade industry with the gift of the Union Customs Code, Delegating and Implementing Acts. The Union Customs Code replaces the Community Customs Code with the goal of modernizing processes and regulations to match up to today’s business climate and technology. The Union Customs Code is effective May 1^st, 2016, but implementation is going to be phased over three years.