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Every year we send you a list of reminders that you should look into at the start of the year. Please keep these in mind, and if you have any questions, please let us know. They are all equally important, and are not in any particular order of importance. The first part is just a listing. Below the list is further explanation of each item. If you have any questions, please let me know, send me an email. Please, please, please pay attention to these items, do not ignore them.
1. Blanket NAFTA Certificates of Origin for Importing into the USA.
2. Blanket NAFTA Certificates of Origin for Exporting to Mexico (or Canada).
3. Annual NAFTA Analysis
4. Annual U.S. Customs Reconciliation.
5. Customs Invoice Values.
6. Country of Origin Marking Waivers
7. 9801 Manufacturer's Affidavits
8. 9802 Manufacturer's Affidavits
9. Truck Transponders
10. Record Keeping.
EXPLANATIONS:
1. NAFTA Certificates of Origin. Imports Into USA from Mexico (or Canada); Most of you use Blanket NAFTA Certificates of Origin for products imported into the USA from Mexico. These Blanket certificates cover all imports into the USA from your Mexican assembler for 12 months. NAFTA Certificates of Origin used to import into the USA must be completed by the Mexican assembler shipping the product to the USA. Under regulation, these blanket certificates cover a maximum of 12 months of import activity. If the blanket NAFTA Certificates of Origin you received from the Mexican assembler for use on your imports from Mexico cover from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2011, the blanket certificates need to be updated immediately. U.S. Customs regulations require that the U.S. importer must be in physical possession of a valid NAFTA Certificate of Origin before any import into the USA can be claimed under NAFTA. Please insist on the Mexican assembler to update their NAFTA BLANKET CERTIFICATES OF ORIGIN and have them sent to you immediately.
2. NAFTA Certificates of Origin. Exports to Mexico of components and materials. The U.S. company that ships components and materials to Mexico, to the Maquiladora, needs to provide NAFTA Certificates of Origin to the Maquiladora so that they can claim NAFTA when it is imported into Mexico. The maximum blanket period is 12 months. You need to update these Certificates to the maquiladora. Of course you can only provide NAFTA Certificates for those components or materials that qualify for NAFTA status.
You should also note that maquiladoras also use these NAFTA Certificates of Origin from the U.S. company, when they conduct their NAFTA Analysis for the assembled products that are shipped back to the U.S. Company.
It is not just a matter of changing the dates on the Certificate of Origin, you should undertake a thorough NAFTA analysis before updating the dates and forwarding them to the Mexican assembler.
3. Annual NAFTA Analysis: In line with #2 and #3 above, insist on the Mexican assembler or Maquiladora to conduct new NAFTA analysis for all products that you import into the USA, especially if origins or costs of the components or raw materials, that were used to assemble the product, changed since the last NAFTA analysis was undertaken.
NAFTA status can be affected if a component or material that is used in the assembly of your product, and that was previously fabricated in a NAFTA country, is now sourced from a non-NAFTA country. I emphasize that it 'can be' affected, it cannot determined until an analysis is undertaken.
Likewise with changes in costs of components, materials or value-added in Mexico. Some products, not all, rely on their NAFTA status on the basis of NAFTA cost content achieving at least 50% of the Total Net Cost. (Other products get their NAFTA status by the tariff-shift method). If your products obtain their NAFTA status on the basis of a percentage of the NAFTA cost content against total Net cost, then it must be re-analyzed at this time.
4. Annual U.S. Customs Reconciliation. Importer activity for the year 2011 should be reported under the annual U.S. Customs Reconciliation. . The deadline is 21 months from the date of the oldest entry, which should not be used as a reason to postpone filing the Recon. If you need import activity reports from us please let us know by email.
5. Customs Invoice Values. You need to update your standard costs for materials, components and value added that is declared on the Customs Invoice for products imported into the USA. These costs usually vary from one year to the next. Frozen standard costs should particularly be updated. The reason for large variances between Declared costs and the Reconciled values, when the Reconciliation is filed, is due to the difference between real costs and standard costs. Look to the standard costs for materials and value added when you are searching for the reason for the large variance between real costs and declared costs.
6. Country Of Origin Marking Waivers: If you use country of origin marking waivers, check the date of expiration of the marking waiver and, if expired, renew the waiver.
7. 9801 Manufacturer's Affidavits. If you purchase equipment, machinery, tools, etc. that are made in the USA, and will be shipped to Mexico, obtain a Manufacturer's Affidavit attesting to its U.S. origin, by the U.S. manufacturer. This way if the item returns to the USA, it can be imported as an American Product Returning and does not pay duties.
8. 9802 Manufacturers Affidavit. If you have a product that is not NAFTA, and is paying duty, any U.S. Components in the assembled product can be exempted from paying the duty, if the components meet certain, specific conditions which need to be reviewed. But first, in order to do this, you must have an affidavit from the manufacturer of the component or material that the component/material was fabricated by them, in the USA, and the address of manufacture in the USA. There are other very specific critical conditions that need to be complied with, but this is a good alternative to reduce duties in cases where the product is not NAFTA, and you use USA-fabricated components. In addition, the invoice description must state '9802.00.80' which is the designation that the product contains U.S. components which will be exempted from duty. You only need to do this if your product is not NAFTA.
9. Truck Transponders. Companies that operate their own trucks to ferry cargo across the border must obtain a U.S. Customs Annual Truck Registration Decal for each truck. The decals also contain a transponder that is activated when the truck approaches U.S. Customs. These can now be purchased only online.
10. Record Keeping. U.S. Customs requires U.S. importers to maintain all records pertaining to the importation of products INTO the USA, for 5 years, whether it be paper or computer records. This includes all origin and cost information, NAFTA certificates of origin, assembly descriptions, etc.
If you have any questions, please send me an email.
Alex Romero
General Manager/Lic USCustoms Broker
AF Romero & Co INC
CTPAT Certified, NCBFAA, ICPA
E-mail: alex@afromero.com
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