2016 Customs Compliance Best Practices and Updates

During last week’s ACI customs conference held in Washington DC, I had the pleasure of presenting with two seasoned trade professionals, Ken Weigel of Alston and Bird LLP and Chris Colford of Mitsui & Co. (USA), on advanced topics in classification and compliance considerations. 

In addition to nuances between the classification of a part that involved the same construction but had a different way of being installed, myself and Chris focused on other governmental agency (“OGA”) requirements, and the importance of understanding the impact that a product’s classification could have on packaging, labeling, and shipping requirements, as well as other necessary declarations, whether upon importing into the US or when importing into another country.

Key takeaways of reoccurring themes across panels centered on the following.

   1.    Emphasizing the importance of compliance to upper management. 

Trade compliance is complicated and the costs involved can make it a subject that management may want to run away from.  No surprise.  Taking the explanation beyond the mere necessity to do so however, and showing the value that the investment in a compliance program brings to a company in whatever form it may, e.g., in terms of risk mitigation, reputation building, duty savings benefits etc., is key.  If your company does not already have a Compliance Steering Committee, key organizational partners on this team include the Finance, Trade Counsel and the Transportation/Logistics roles.

   2.    Communication across the organization. 

This is important for not only for compliance purposes but also for cost savings.  I’ll give you two examples.

Example 1.  Is a low duty rate better than a free one?  Obviously it’s not, which is why where a company’s invested in the set up of importing under a free trade agreement ("FTA"), it’s imperative that the Purchasing Dept. be aware of this effort so that they don’t opt for buying a cheaper product from a country other than the one (or ones) eligible under the chosen FTA as the resulting duty liability could end up being greater than the cost savings of sourcing from that other country.

Example 2.  The Marketing Dept. wants to highlight every feature in a big way, which is a good thing as that is what they are tasked to do.  The problem is, if what they are promoting about the product is not actually truthful, the company can run into some issues of misleading advertising claims, which could lead to penalties and fines, but it can also lead to unnecessary spending in order to change the already-paid-for marketing that needs to be redone.  Bottom line - make sure your departments are communicating with one another.

   3.    Conduct internal and vendor audits.

From sampling methods to managing expectations, the importance of reviewing the efficacy of internal processes and reexamining vendor performance to ensure compliance with contractual terms was highlighted across the conference panels.

Recommendations included to:

      a)    Put expectations into the service provider’s contract and to conduct an annual validation of them

      b)   Conduct a day+ long seminar to train them

      c)    Request necessary “proofs” on areas where questions could come back for verification by your business, e.g., certain export documents or a NAFTA certificate 

Key takeaways aside, there were some other areas of interest which included the much talked about Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement or “TPP,” and the questionable likelihood that it will actually come to fruition this year given that we are in an election year (and no one wants to have to vote on it), along with the usage of the Centers for Excellence and Expertise (CEE) and the notice that all importers will be tied one of the CEEs across the country by the end of 2016 based on the type of goods imported, at least that is what they are aiming for according to Susan Dalpe of CBP. 

Lastly worth noting, while not all of the efforts for usage of the “single window” for import/export communications with the government are on track for timely implementation, one that is very much on track is that of the transition from the Automated Export System (AES) for export filings to that of US Customs Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).

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