Issue 354, July 10, 2002

1. Discontinuation of Beef Fee on Importations

   The U.S. Department of Agriculture has notified the U.S. Customs Service that, pursuant to a court order, Customs is to stop collecting the beef check-off fee as of July 15, 2002. Therefore, Customs will not collect the fee on cattle, beef and beef products entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after July 15, 2002. Fees due on beef entered before July 15, 2002, shall be paid at entry summary. If the court's order is stayed, further instructions will be issued by Customs. Programming changes are under way for 77 tariff numbers associated with cattle, beef and beef products.

2. Antidumping and Countervailing Duties

   The United States Customs Service has been increasing their Enforced Compliance activities in recent months. Of particular interest now, is the requirement for commercial invoices covering goods subject to Antidumping (ADD) or Countervailing (CVD) Duties to bear an indication as to the inclusion of such duties in the selling prices of the merchandise when such goods are imported on a "duty paid basis".

   In Customs rulings (545404 CRS of January 4, 1994 and HQ546191 of April 12, 1999), it is held that Customs will allow for the deductions of such duties from the invoice price of such charges if the amount is separately identified on the commercial invoices at the time of import.

   By so noting these inclusions on the commercial invoice, you will entitle yourself to the appropriate deduction from the selling price for the non-dutiable charge. Acceptable examples might include:

   a. Typical Terms of Sale:

   DDP, FOB Destination Duty Paid should be altered to DDP Including ADD/CVD or FOB Destination Duty Paid Including ADD/CVD.

   b. Invoice Pricing Structure (assuming price of goods to be FOB):

   Price of Goods		$10,000.00
   Freight		$ 1,000.00
   Insurance		$ 100.00
   Duty and Fees		Included $
   Antidumping/Countervailing Duty		Included $
   TOTAL		$11,100.00 plus Duty and Fees ADD/CVD

   Without such indicators of the ADD and CVD being an included factor of the total invoice price, Customs will likely deny your claim for the ADD/CVD as a non-dutiable deduction. The effective date for Enforced Compliance to take effect is August 1, 2002.

Our contributing authors, Paul Vroman and Dan See, are located in the Port Huron office of Danzas AEI Intercontinental as Technical Advisors and can be reached at paul.vroman@dhl.com and daniel.see@us.danzas.com.

Please note that due to the complex nature of the subject matter, DHL Danzas Air & Ocean cannot be responsible for actions taken by the reader in reliance on the information contained herein without prior consultation with DHL Danzas Air & Ocean.