Looking to Buy Products Made in the USA?

The Office of Textiles and Apparel at the US International Trade Administration has a handy portal to help sellers find vendors who manufacture products made in the USA.

Specific to the textiles and apparel industries, the portal allows you to search for vendors of children’s wear (including infants), men’s and boy’s, or women’s and girl’s apparel, in addition to accessories and footwear, technical textiles as well as soft furnishings.

You can further search by fabrics, whether of wool, cotton, upholstery, silk and other fabrics.

Whether searching for a cut and sew contractor, input supplier, manufacturer or other type of business, the information you will get back includes an entity’s contact information, whether or not they export, production capacity and production locations.

You can also learn if they have design capabilities, have any special washes or treatments available, certifications offered and many other details.

To go to the Made in USA search portal, click here.

Questions/comments?  Post below or email me at fashioncompliance@gmail.com

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How to Mark a Commercial Sample as a “SAMPLE”

Say you want to set up a carpet business and need carpet samples to show prospective buyers your range of colors.

 

 
Commercial samples become an issue for US Customs primarily under two (2) scenarios. 

The first is where an importer, because it is importing a product it does not intend to resell, seeks to avoid marking a product via use of one of the country of origin marking exceptions.

The second is where an importer seeks duty-free treatment of the merchandise being imported by classifying it as a commercial sample under a special provision in chapter 98 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the US (HTSUS).

Chapter 98 of the HTSUS has a special provision regarding the duty-free entry of a commercial sample under HTSUS heading 9811.00.20 when use of the sample is for the purpose of soliciting purchase orders for foreign merchandise and the creation of demand for future orders.  Such treatment is afforded when the sample is

1.    Not valued over $1, OR

2.    Is marked, torn, perforated or otherwise treaded so that it is unsuitable for sale or for use otherwise than a sample.

Whereas not having the ”SAMPLE” marking may raise an issue by a US Customs border inspector, marking it “SAMPLE NOT FOR RESALE” eliminates any issue.  A best practice is to instruct your foreign vendor to mark the sample so as to minimize any ambiguities.

One way to mark these little guys would be as shown in the image below.

 

Again, such recommendation is being made in order to avoid issues that could arise due to an inspection of the sample. 

 

Questions/comments?  Post below or email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com

 

Keep up with me on Twitter @fashcompliance.

 

Obtaining Export Declarations Under the AGOA Agreement

The US has preferential trade agreements with many other countries to promote and increase trade with those nations.

One of these is the “African Growth and Opportunity Act,” otherwise known as the AGOA agreement.

Doreen Mashika Print Clutch Bags - Zanzibar

As it pertains to textiles, its purpose is (in part) to provide for the entry of specific textile and apparel articles free of duty and free of any quantitative limits from the participating countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

For more information about the AGOA, check out these articles:

AGOA Third Country Fabric Provision Extended to 2015

 Africa Sourcing and the AGOA Extension

AGOA Renewal Recommendations Sought by USTR

 For preferential treatment under AGOA, the exporter is required to prepare a certificate of origin and provide it to the importer.  This certificate is something that the importer must request from the exporter to have and keep as part of its record keeping.  The certificate of origin includes information such as

(1)    The contact information for the importer, exporter and producer;

(2)    The basis for which preferential treatment is claimed; and

(3)    A description of the imported merchandise.

Importers are required to have the certificate in their possession at the time of the claim, and to provide it to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) upon request.

Questions/comments?  Post below or email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com

Keep up with me!

On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FashionCompliance 

On YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/fashioncompliance 

On Tumblr: http://fashioncompliance.tumblr.com

On Twitter @fashcompliance https://twitter.com/fashcompliance