Free Trade Agreements

Questions and answers about Free Trade Agreements

  • US JORDAN QUALIFICATION SCENARIO

    QUESTION: In reviewing the US & Jordan FTA, there are no rules of origin based on tariff to determine if items under 1806.20, 2106.90 and 1901.20 qualify for the FTA from a US export perspective. It only addresses items imported from Jordan and calls out items in chapter 8 and 20. How am I to […]

  • CETA ORIGIN STATEMENT # 3

    QUESTION: What is the proper way to fill out Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) origin statement, field 3?Annex 2 refers to “these products are of …(3) preferential origin” ****. (3)   “Canada/EU” means products qualifying as originating under the rules of origin of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. When the origin declaration […]

  • INVOICE WITH FTA PROGRAM

    QUESTION: When doing a commercial invoice for an item going into a country with which one has an FTA, but the item doesn’t have a required cert, does one list the country as what one thinks the country of origin is, even if it would otherwise be a qualifying country?  Or does one just list […]

  • THAILAND SWITZERLAND FTA

    QUESTION: Is if there a trade agreement between Thailand and Switzerland which can save a custom cost if a form A is present for the custom clearance process? The goods are shoes coming from Thailand to Switzerland. ========== Answer: I think the accord is still under negotiations. https://www.seco.admin.ch/seco/en/home/Aussenwirtschaftspolitik_Wirtschaftliche_Zusammenarbeit/Wirtschaftsbeziehungen/Freihandelsabkommen/Liste_der_Freihandelsabkommen_der_Schweiz.html ==========

  • KORUS DISTRIBUTION FROM JAPAN

    QUESTION: We ship from the US to a bonded facility in Japan which acts similar to a distribution center.  The goods remain under Customs control until the order is filled and goods are shipped in same condition still under Customs control from Japan to Korea.  At the time of shipment from the US we do […]

  • USIFTA QUALIFICATION

    QUESTION: Does anyone in the membership have a process or work instruction on how to properly qualify an item for the US-Israel FTA? ========== Answers: To qualify for no duty under U.S. Israel Free Trade Agreement (FTA) a 35% of the contents must be originating from the United States. If you are trying to calculate […]

  • USIFTA CALC AND PROFIT

    QUESTION: US Content Required to qualify for US-Israel FTA: 35% of the appraised value of the item at the time of import into Israel   US Content = (1) The cost or value of the materials produced in the United States, plus (2) the direct costs of processing operations performed in the United States constitutes […]

  • ORIGIN CHANGE FROM FOREIGN PROCESSING

    QUESTION: If a company ships various components, in bulk quantities,  of US origin to Costa Rica for further production and/or assembly, would these actions change the origin of the finished item(s) to Costa Rica? Would this depend on the nature of the further processing? How does/would accumulation be considered in this determination? What other factors […]

  • FTA IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS

    QUESTION: For Companies that have implemented FTA software, did you implement one FTA at a time? one region at a time? one region multiple FTA’s? why did you go with each option? What are the pros and cons? Learnings? ========== Answer: We implemented FTA as part of our initial GTM software implementation. We started with […]

  • BORDER TAX AND FTAs

    QUESTION: If there is a border tax imposed in the near future, does anyone have an idea of the affect on US Free Trade Agreements? ========== Answers: This is the million dollar question.  No, there is no way in knowing how and what would be impacted by a new border tax.  Just Google statements made, […]

  • LABOR IN RVC CALCULATION

    QUESTION: Can non-direct labor cost (such as overhead) be counted as originating for purposes of RVC? ===================== ANSWERS: To answer this question read the portion of the General Notes in the HTSUS that applies to the specific free trade agreement which allows for RVC — that specifies what costs can be used. ===================== If using […]

  • US-AU TARIFF SHIFT SCENARIO

    QUESTION: The final product is 8537.10 It has parts classified in 8538.90 valued over de minimis   The tariff shif​t rule is: A change to headings 8537 through 8538 from any other heading.   The rule does not mention if the change of headings from any other heading includes within the headings of 8537-8538 or […]