QUESTION: How do I claim assists for tooling on items which are 0% duty? I know it will affect MPF, but is that all? ========== Answers: The legal responsibility to declare an assist where one exists is not connected to the HTS classification and rate of duty for the product. Any increase in value will […]
QUESTION: I am seeking some advice/best practices on managing assists. Situation: We are sending an unrelated manufacturer in China a shipment of 40,000 screws to be used in the production of a finished good that they will send to us in the U.S once complete. The screws are being sent over in one shipment and […]
QUESTION: Goods are manufactured in Country X, and imported to US by importer. The importer purchases some components from Country Y, and provides those free of charge to Country X manufacturer. Manufacturer only invoices US importer for his value add, not the importer-supplied components. Therefore, the importer-supplied components represent an assist, and it makes sense […]
QUESTION: We own tooling domiciled at our vendor in China. We have paid the assists for these tooling. A 3PL company has come in and will be taking over on this vendor for us. This 3PL is a USA company. We will issue them a domestic p.o. out of their warehouse facility in the USA […]
QUESTION: We own a design facility in TW that does our design work for us, the costs are allocated to each region that will be receiving product coming from that design. For an example, the TW facility designs a product, our US facility has an allocation (payment) on the books for 200K (to the design […]
QUESTION: We own a design facility in TW that does our design work for us, the costs are allocated to each region that will be receiving product coming from that design. For an example, the TW facility designs a product, our US facility has an allocation (payment) on the books for 200K (to the design […]
QUESTION: Can assist values be manually added to the invoice presented for entry in Mexico and Canada. Vendors may not be aware of any assist and need to know the best way to handle this. ========== Answers: Yes. If you add the full value to the invoice they will pay any duties all at once […]
QUESTION: We are sending over to China some “gauges” for measure the thread on ours casings during manufacture. These gauges will be staying in China to use on all of our products. Since we are sending these “Free of charge” would these gauges be considered assists? We would also need to add in the freight […]
QUESTION: Scenario- Patterns sent to China years ago, that produced product by a manufacturer hired through an agent to us the importer of record. Assists were claimed on first imports made by this manufacturer through this agent. Agent stopped using this manufacturer and the patterns were moved to a new manufacturer (same country), and we […]
QUESTION: I know that “assists” involve the buyer of imported merchandise providing for free or at a reduced cost, certain items for use in the production or sale of merchandise for export to the US. My question involves the definition of “reduced cost”. If an importer sells the item at the importer’s actual cost of […]
QUESTION: I’m finding the following costs associated with the order for casting:ToolingPKG chargeTestingX ray certShipping costNREI’m wondering if all these are considered assist?========== Answer: As a general rule and without additional information on the specific use, all of this would be considered to be supplemental payment related to the production or exportation of the items […]
QUESTION: Assists- when sending over a mold to make several or more items, do we need to declared the price of that mold for every item that is made from it? Or can we just claim the value of the mold on the first importation of the first item being made with that mold? I […]
