U.S. Customs and Border Protection may have decided not to eliminate the "first-sale" rule for figuring duty rates, but importers still must comply with a new reporting rule, according to the Deringer Logistics Consulting Group. The recently enacted Farm Bill, known officially as the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, requires that U.S. importers report the use of first sale on Customs entries, whether or not they used that transaction to declare the value of their merchandise. For one year, Deringer says, the U.S. International Trade Commission will report the aggregate transaction value of imported goods for which first sale is declared, as well as the aggregate value of all merchandise imported into the U.S. The new requirement will likely become mandatory within 90 days, Deringer said in late July. Customs is working to add a first-sale declaration box to the CF 7501 entry form. If first sale is not being declared, the box would remain blank, Deringer notes. Those not using the first-sale rule for calculating transaction value should inform their Customs brokers by stating as such on their commercial invoices, the company says.
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