Question: We have a Mexican supplier /manufacturer who is subcontracting one of our ordered parts to another Canadian supplier. The Canadian supplier will manufacture the part and ship it back our Mexican supplier. We are paying the freight from the Canadian supplier to our Mexican supplier. Would these freight charges be considered assists and applied […]
Question: Hello fellow Trade Nerds! I have a fun one for you today! Company A in Country A purchases Item 1 from Company B in Country B. Company B drop ships Item 1 to Company C in Country C under direction from Company A. Company A does not charge Company C for Item 1. Company […]
Question: Hello! In our internal audits, we have surfaced payments made to a tooling supplier where the tooling supplier is also the producer of the finished imported goods. Would customs consider these payments to be assists (and be granted flexibility for total $ declaration upon first entry of merchandised goods), or instead would they be […]
Question: We are a US based company that outsources some engineering work to a company based in India. Most of this work is related to drawing revisions and some, but minimum design work. The drawing revisions being done are related to components that we purchase both domestically as well as import. We receive a […]
Question: Hi All Quick question. Company ABC in US developed blueprint (it was done by employee of the company that will be importer later on) for new product (bottle cap). These blueprints are now sent to China so Chinese manufacturer XYZ can produce product there and export to company ABC in US Does cost associated […]
Question: My company uses a contract manufacture to make subassemblies. This contract manufacturer assembles at their maquiladora. My company has sent assist materials/tooling/etc.. directly to the maquiladora via their border warehouse in Nogales AZ. Now with the typical maquiladora process, our finished assemblies come out of Mexico and are imported through the border warehouse and […]
Question: We are a US company sending tools and tooling to our related party foreign manufacturing facility for use in the production of a finished good that will be exported to our end customer in the US. The Incoterms are EXW from the foreign facility direct to the end customer; the end customer will be […]
Question: If we send test equipment to an unrelated foreign 3rd party to test PCBs and the tested PCBs are sent to our foreign manufacturing facility to be used in the production of the final product for export to the US on an Intercompany PO; would the test equipment be considered an assist? Answer 1: […]
Question: We are a US company setting up a related party foreign manufacturing facility. If we send tools, tooling, test equipment, etc., free of charge are they still considered assists when the finished product is exported to the US on an Intercompany PO? Thank you, Answer 1: I mean, that’s the textbook definition of an […]
Question: If we are importing an SKU, or doing a PSC on an SKU that has a “Tooling Assist”, say $5000 and it is a small motor from China that has a 9903.88.03 penalty 301 code at 25%. But the HTS 8501.10.4060 is “Excludible” from the 301 penalty but carries a 4% general tariff. The […]
Question: A tooling charge is what is known as a non-recurring charge and is part of the dutiable Customs value of the products. Can anyone tell where in the regulations this is addressed? Answer 1: The specific regulation is 19 CFR 152.102(a) (“Assist”): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-19/chapter-I/part-152/subpart-E/section-152.102 CBP has also published the Informed Compliance Publications, “Customs Value” and […]
Question: Our offshore manufacturing plant is bidding for a new program wherein some components of that new program will be sold to our US plant. Then our US plant will export those components to our offshore plant for the new program. Can this be an assist? Is there a possibility of eliminating duties for the […]
