TradeLane

Often when I ask importers about their duty liability the response I receive is, “Yes… but its only 5%.”  Well if I had 5% of the 5% for every time I ask…. you get the picture.  Whilst the duty paid on individual importations may not amount to a substantial cost, over time the “only 5%” can add up to significant sums.  If you are still not convinced, consider what’s more challenging: expanding your sales to increase net profit by 5%, or reducing the cost of the imported product through duty mitigation?

I suspect many of you have continued reading, so allow me to introduce a valuable duty mitigation method: the Tariff Concession System. In Australia the Tariff Concession System was designed to help industry become more competitive in the international markets by allowing duty-free importation of certain products that are eligible for a Tariff Concession Order (TCO).  Upon application, a TCO is made in respect of goods if substitutable goods are not produced in Australia, in the ordinary course of business.  In this context, substitutable goods are Australian produced goods which have a use corresponding to a use of the imported goods. A number of goods are excluded from TCO eligibility, such as clothing, foodstuffs and some passenger motor vehicles.

Importers participating in the Reconciliation Prototype Program (RPP) need to be aware that U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently started reviewing all reconciliation bond riders currently on file. 

As 2014 comes to a close, we can't help but reminisce about the goings on this year. Particularly, our very first year of TradeLane! We've been so happy to share a little expertise, and our passion for global compliance. 

In case you missed any, here's a look back at  the top five TradeLane blog posts from this year.

Which was your favorite? 

Have you heard that U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP), will begin accepting applications from exporters for participation in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program?  If your company is already a certified C-TPAT importer in good standing, your company is well on its way to becoming a C-TPAT exporter and can apply for the exporter program – simply update your profile in the portal.    

The C-TPAT exporter program provides the opportunity to partner with CBP to get a head start  in ensuring your overall corporate compliance program is up to par and receive  some additional benefits in the process, including:

First I would like to say ‘Hello!’ to all of the TradeLane readers, this is my first post here but will certainly not be the last. I joined Tradewin as Principal in Asia just recently and am really excited to be here!

When I travel to the US or the EU I am often asked to provide some thoughts on managing trade compliance in Asia. This is a bit difficult thing to do because there are of course an awful lot of countries in Asia (anywhere between 25-75 depending on what you count as ‘Asia’). And of course each country has its own unique set of trade regulations and practices that may or may not be similar to what exist elsewhere in the region or in the world.  Still, if we limit ‘Asia’ to the larger trading countries (say, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam), and exclude India, there are some general points that can be made that describe the environment as we experience it.