Free Trade Agreements

Questions and answers about Free Trade Agreements

  • USMCA Certificate for material in inventory

    Question: If a US producer received raw material in 2022, and received a 2022 USMCA certificate for the material, is the producer allowed to base their 2024 USMCA certificate (for a finished good which used that raw material) on the 2022 COO received from the supplier?   Assume there have been no receipts of that material […]

  • FTA Agreements

    Question: We are required to complete free trade agreements per requests from our customers.  As the parts are initially sold to my company I feel that we should be the importer of record on these.  As we would be the party who would get the benefit from the duty free opportunities if the parts qualify. […]

  • FTA’s

    Question: Is there any advantage to claiming an FTA where the duty/tax rate is 0%? We are being pushed to provide an FTA for a food item that is already duty free into the US. I read that an FTA can help protect intellectual property rights, but that seems to be a non-issue for food […]

  • USMCA certifications for inactive parts

    Question: If you are receiving 2024 USMCA requests for a part that you have stopped making in 2022 but still sent to your customer in 2023, can you qualify it for USMCA in 2024?  How about 2023?  Or is the last year you can qualify it for USMCA is 2022 since that is the last […]

  • FTA USE FOR IMPORT INTO MEXICO

    Question: Hi Everyone, If we clear a fabric from the Czech Republic into the United States for furtherance into Mexico, does this cancel any rulings of the free trade agreement between CZ, and MX? Will the customer still be able to use the free trade agreement for duty relief? It was suggested to me that […]

  • UK Chile Trade Agreement

    Question: Hello Folks: Is there a link where I can find the latest or existence of a UK-Chile Free Trade Agreement.  I emailed HMS UK and have not received a reply. Thank you. Answer 1: You can try to inquire the company HURRICANE COMMERCE and they will  bring you the latest cross-border trade and international […]

  • Charging Customers for Free Trade Agreement Certification

    Question: Do businesses in the manufacturing industry charge customers for Free Trade Agreement certification?  If so, do you charge all customers, or just a subset of customers, and what do you charge? Answer 1: We do not charge for FTA certificates, but then again, we are always behind with our certifications so I would be […]

  • US-Japan Trade Agreement Importer Statements

    Question: I’m just taken over as Global Import Manager in our company and have been reviewing some of the older documents, this time, in relation to imports from Japan. I’ve found blanket importer statements that were issued in 2020 (to carriers, for ALL items being imported from Japan from any supplier). I’m not too happy […]

  • USMCA or US Goods Returned?

    Question: Background: Company A (located in the US, related to Company B) Company B (located in Canada, related to Company A) Company C (located in the US, non-related third-party) Product Origin is US and qualifies for USMCA Issue:  Company A wants to sell finished goods to Company C; however, Company A does not have manufacturing/warehouse […]

  • US/ISRAEL FTA

    Question: Suppose the product is taken outside Israel for epoxy coating or painting and returned to Israel for final assembly. Will it qualify for the Israel FTA, assuming it meets the substantial transformation and value requirements? Or if it is taken outside Israel for any other reason. Answer 1: I think that this ruling may […]

  • Reasonable Care: Evaluation of Free Trade Agreement Qualification

    Question: I am curious if the community can provide any feedback or a form, they might be willing to share that they use to document the evaluation process of qualification of free trade agreements. Too often, policies and procedures say that companies evaluate documentation, but they do not explain how it is evaluated.  For example, […]

  • Costa Rica – Electronic Signatures vs Manual Signature

    Question: We’ve successfully issued free trade / preferential origin certifications for years with the signature from a scanned blue-ink copy of the certifier’s signature.  The signature is the same as if we physically signed the certification, albeit applied as a “paste” in our templates. We now have a customer in Costa Rica stating: Costa Rica […]