Plain-English guides on HS codes, country of origin, duty-paid checkout, and EU and UK customs changes.
US customs law requires importers to keep entry records for five years, and the list of what counts as a record is wider than most DTC brands expect. The brands that survive audits are the ones whose records are findable, not just kept.
When an importer buys from a related supplier, customs asks whether the relationship influenced the price. Transaction value survives if the importer can show the price was settled as if between strangers, or matches accepted test values.
When a buyer supplies tooling, molds, materials, or design work to a foreign producer for free or below cost, customs treats that help as an assist, and its value is added to the customs value of the finished goods.
A royalty or licence fee paid by the buyer must be added to customs value when it is related to the imported goods and the buyer has to pay it as a condition of the sale. Getting that test wrong in either direction costs importers real money.
Every importer makes entry errors. The difference between a correction and a violation is timing, disclosure, and paperwork. Post entry amendments, prior disclosures, and protests each fix a different kind of mistake, and using the wrong one wastes the protection it offers.
Goods made in the US, exported, and later returned without being improved abroad can re enter duty free under the American goods returned provisions. The saving is worthwhile, and the proof burden, showing the goods are the same US goods and were not advanced in value, is where claims fail.
When goods pass through a middleman before reaching the importer, duty is usually charged on the price the importer paid. A valid first sale structure lets duty rest on the earlier factory price instead. This guide explains the conditions that make it hold up.
For ocean shipments to the United States, security filing data must reach customs before the vessel loads at the foreign port. Importers own most of that data and most of the penalties. This guide explains the Importer Security Filing in plain terms and where filings go wrong.
More shipments are delayed by their pallets than by their paperwork. Wood packaging material is regulated worldwide to stop plant pests, and non compliant wood can mean treatment, destruction, or re export of the whole consignment. This guide explains the ISPM 15 standard and the checks importers should put in supplier instructions.
Products with ordinary commercial uses can also have military or weapons related uses, and export rules treat some of them as controlled dual use goods. Distributors who never think of themselves as exporters can still break the rules. This guide explains the concept, the common categories, and a basic screening habit for sales and shipments.
An importer can breach sanctions rules by buying from a listed party, using a blocked intermediary, or shipping through a route that serves a sanctioned end user, often without any intent to do so. This guide gives a practical screening routine for supplier lists, payments, and shipments that a small trade team can actually run.
Importers in major markets now face laws that can block goods made with forced labour, with the burden effectively on the importer to show clean sourcing for high risk goods. Good intentions are not evidence. This guide explains what these regimes ask for and how to build traceability that holds up before a shipment is detained.
Preferential duty rates depend on origin, and origin depends on evidence. Supplier declarations are the paperwork backbone of that evidence, and most importers collect them badly or not at all. This guide explains what a good declaration covers and how to manage them across a supplier base.
A bonded warehouse lets an importer store goods without paying duty until they leave for domestic sale, and pay nothing at all on goods re exported. For seasonal or slow moving imports, the cash flow difference is real. This guide explains how bonding works and when it pays.
Whether international freight and insurance are part of the dutiable customs value depends on the valuation system and the shipping terms, and the US and EU answers differ. Importers trading in both directions need to know which costs ride into their duty bill and which stay out.
Not every discount reduces customs value, and not every rebate increases it. The treatment turns on when the price was agreed, whether the discount was known at import, and whether the payment flows back to the seller or somewhere else entirely.
When an importer buys from a related seller, such as a parent company or sister factory, customs can question whether the relationship influenced the price. The importer must be ready to show the transfer price is acceptable as customs value.
First sale valuation lets an importer declare customs value on the price of the first sale in a multi tier chain, rather than the final price paid to the middleman, cutting the duty base when the program rules are met and documented.
Origin marking rules require imported goods to show their country of origin clearly and permanently, and online listings carry their own disclosure duties. Unmarked goods can be held, marked at your cost, or refused.
A CBP binding ruling letter settles classification, origin, or valuation questions before you ship. For products with real duty at stake, the ruling converts an argument into a number you can price against.
Liquidated damages claims arise when an importer breaches bond conditions: a late filing, a missed redelivery, an ignored notice. The claimed amounts start high, and mitigation through petitions is where they are actually decided.
A post summary correction fixes errors before liquidation, a protest challenges CBP after it. Using the wrong tool can forfeit your remedy entirely.
A CBP protest under 19 USC 1514 can recover overpaid duties, but the 180-day deadline is unforgiving. When to file and how to build one that wins.
Type 86 entries clear low-value shipments fast, but the rules are specific. When DTC brands should use them, what the limits are, and where importers get tripped up.
DDP promises the customer a final price. When tariff rates move weekly, how to keep that promise without bleeding margin.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act presumes certain goods are tainted. What documentation CBP expects and how importers build an admissibility package.
Your ocean freight cannot sail until the ISF is filed. What the 10+2 data elements are, who files them, and how late or wrong filings become penalties.
CBP liquidated your entry at a higher duty rate than you expected. You do not have to accept it. The protest process gives importers a formal path to challenge the decision, but the 180-day clock starts immediately.
Some import values cannot be known when the goods arrive. Reconciliation lets you file now and finalize later. How it works, when DTC brands need it, and the deadlines that matter.
A CBP audit reviews your classifications, valuations, and origin claims across years of entries. What the process looks like and how DTC brands prepare.
A rejected entry summary stops the import clock. Why CBP rejects filings, what the rejection notice tells you, and how to fix it fast.
Your broker files in your name, but the liability is yours. A practical entry-audit routine: what to check, how often, and the red flags that mean your broker needs a conversation.