• SAMPLE VALUATION

    Question: My company is exporting prototype PCBs for testing to our office inShanghai.The prototypes have no commercial value since they are pre-productionR&D stage.  The only value I can devise is the price we paid for theboards, components, etc.  How does the industry value their prototypes?Obviously, I need to use a defensible methodology, but seek somefeedback.  […]

  • BUYING COMMISSIONS

    Question: For those of you who pay a Buying Commission to a bone fide buying agent,please advise how you notate this in the commercial documents for customsentry.  Do you state the commission percentage (payable) on the commercialdocuments?  We do have a separate commission invoice, but it is not availableat time of entry.  Currently we have […]

  • COMPUTED VALUE SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

    Question:My company recently started using Standard cost on imports from a related party and as a consequence flagged entries for reconciliation and used computed value as the appraising method; I forwarded the computed value section in the “customs Valuation encyclopedia” and in the FA program manual to my cost accounting group to give them guidance […]

  • FIRST SALE

    Question: Since the First Sale data collection period is over, is it still a requirement to flag first sale on the invoice or entry? CBP will be gathering information on use of the “First Sale Rule”, under which an importer can declare a lower value from a sale prior to the value of the final […]

  • FIRST SALE OPTION

    Question:I was reading a past post named “Valuation Q&A 40”, and found the following statement, which has some great information and I have a follow up question for the membership. (Hopefully George will not mind either) A good resource to review is Customs’ informed compliance publication on “sales for exportation.” (http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/toolbox/legal/informed_compliance_pubs/ icp010r2.ctt/icp010r2.pdf) The appropriate value […]

  • CORE CHARGES FOR IMPORTS

    Question: Occasionally when purchasing an item companies add on a ‘core charge’ which is refundable once the purchaser returns the defective item. For example:  1  transmission pump   $ 600.00                      1  pump core charge    $ 125.00                      Total                           $ 725.00   How are other members handling this scenario with respect to imports into the U.S. […]

  • PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINING FIRST SALE

    Question:Our company is IOR.  We purchase goods from an unrelated foreign middleman and meet all the requirements of first sale as presented by CBP.  The foreign middleman passes us the manufacturer’s invoice which is the first cost invoice for dutiable value of our shipments.  I am wondering for our Customs compliance procedures, what is the […]

  • PRICE ADJUSTMENTS

    Question: Our company is a large multinational that routinley does retroactive pricing adjustments on product groups for goods that are imported into the U.S.   The pricing adjustments need to be disclosed to customs.  How are other members of multinational companies handling this? We have identified where the adjustments are coming from and how much we […]

  • DUTIABLE VALUE

    Question: DESCRIPTION OF VALUATION Style 42J9 – original FOB value $2.50 Reduced FOB for Late Ship value$1.42 Style 821D – original FOB value $6.48 Reduced FOB for Late Ship value$4.08 Style 822D – original FOB value $6.92 Reduced FOB for Late Ship value$4.36 Ship date no later than 1May09. Actual ship date for all 3 […]

  • VALUE WHEN NO SALE TAKES PLACE

    Question:   I ran into an unusual situation regarding valuation of goods for US entry and would like to hear others opinions on how the goods should be valued.  The goods involved are articles that were purchased by a Canadian company’s Mexico client from a US company that supplied the goods out of Europe delivered […]

  • TRADE SHOW IMPORTATIONS

    Question:   I have been asked to write a company directive on how to handle imports for trade shows and exhibition. We are a global company so the directive needs to speak to imports into the U.S. and other countries around the world. I know each country will have their own guidelines but have no […]

  • VALUE OF DEFECTIVE PRODUCT

    Question:   During QC check the buyer determined that one style of sweater was  poorly sewn and did not pass inspection.  The style was mistakenly  packed with other garments and delivered to the forwarder and included   on the invoice.  It was too late to pull the goods from the  consolidator so they shipped to […]