2010-7
19

Upcoming Webinar: Building an Export Management and Compliance Program

Category: trade agreement management, trade agreements, trade compliance | No Comments

American Shipper is hosting an upcoming webinar, “Building an Export Management and Compliance Program.”

Sponsored by Management Dynamics (in partnership with BPE), the webinar will take place on July 28th at 2 pm ET.

The hour-long round table discussion will include the following expert panelists:

  • Beth Peterson, President of BPE
  • Joe Burks, Director of Trade Compliance for Cooper Industries
  • Nathan Pieri, VP of Product Development and Marketing for Management Dynamics

These experts will discuss best practices for developing your company’s Export Management and Compliance Programs (EMCPs), including:

  • Strategic value of your EMCP
  • The core elements of an effective EMCP
  • The steps required to build an EMCP
  • Sharing your strategy with your C-level superiors

Learn how your company can implement processes and systems that ensure compliance with the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Best of all – it’s FREE!

Sign up today for: Building an Export Management and Compliance Program

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2010-7
19

No Free Trade Agreement for US, Taiwan

Category: ASEAN, trade agreements, us | No Comments

The US has squashed a potential free trade agreement with Taiwan over disputes concerning US beef.

us-beef-exports-taiwan-trade-agreement
Image Courtesy: Lodick Family

Just after Taiwan has signed a landmark free trade agreement with China, David Shear, the State Department pointman on China-Taiwan ties, said the “The United States has no plans to begin talks with Taiwan about an FTA at this time.”

The US and Taiwan were previously negotiating a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement in 2007.

According to the AFP, Taiwan and other Asian countries have been hesitant to implement trade agreements with the US due to various agricultural trade disputes, including beef, pork, and poultry.

The countries imposed restrictions in late 2003 after mad cow disease was detected in an American herd. Some scientists believe humans can contract the brain-wasting illness by eating infected animals’ brains and spinal cords.

Taiwan agreed with the United States in October to let in more beef products but the island’s parliament reimposed restrictions three months later after a public outcry.

Read the complete article at Google News: AFP: US rules out Taiwan free trade deal

Receive free trade agreement, import, and export news: GTM Newsletter

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2010-6
28

Trade Agreement News in your Inbox

Category: free trade agreements, trade agreements | No Comments

Sign up here, and you will automatically receive any new Trade Agreement posts in your inbox, the same day they are posted. Multiple posts in the same day are condensed into 1 email so you won’t be bombarded by updates! No posts, no emails. Pretty convenient, right?

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

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2010-6
4

Webinar: Haiti Trade Benefits

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

I have been updating the trade compliance calendar today, and found this upcoming webinar from Sandler Travis & Rosenberg, PA. It’s free, so please sign up as it will help use your trade compliance superpowers to come to the aid of Haiti.

More Help for Haiti: New Trade Benefits Extended in Haiti Economic Lift Program Act of 2010

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010; at 1:00PM – 2:30PM EST

The President on Monday, May 24, 2010 signed the Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) Act (H.R. 5160), which expands duty-free access to the U.S. market for Haitian textile and apparel products and extends existing trade preference programs for Haiti.Please join us for a complimentary webinar to learn how to do more business in Haiti.

Our presentation includes precise details of these expanded benefits, including:

  • NEW apparel products covered
  • INCREASED Tariff Preference Levels for Knit and Woven apparel made from 3rd country inputs.
  • EXTENDED duration of Preference Programs for Haiti
  • MODIFIED earned import allowance ratio for knit and woven apparel,
  • NEW duty free treatment for made-up textile products wholly assembled or knit to shape in Haiti.

The one hour webinar will be presented by Tom Travis and Elise Shibles.

Mr. Travis is managing partner of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A. His practice concentrates on international trade and customs issues for apparel importers and retailers. He has assisted apparel operators in Haiti for over 30 years. He is also the author of the Amazon.com bestseller Doing Business Anywhere: The Essential Guide to Going Global.

Ms. Shibles served for over 11 years with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. As a specialist in textile and apparel policy, she participated in the negotiation of numerous free trade agreements, helped develop legislation and regulations to implement FTAs and preference programs, and trained foreign industry and government representatives on rules of origin and customs compliance.

COST: FREE
Register Online

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2010-6
1

Video: Managing Multiple Free Trade Agreements

Category: free trade agreements, trade agreement management, trade agreements | 1 Comment

Companies these days are looking for every possible option to reduce sourcing costs. We all know that taking advantage of free trade agreements is an excellent way to do this, but many companies choose not to use these agreements due to their complex nature and potentially difficult learning curve.

Companies that do implement trade agreements find that implementing additional agreements adds exponential savings to their sourcing costs.

Here’s a brief (10 minute) video on managing multiple free trade agreements.

Special thanks to SupplyChainBrain.com.

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2010-5
28

Reminder: NAFTA Survey

Category: NAFTA, free trade agreements, trade agreement management, trade compliance | 1 Comment

Just a reminder: Please help us out by taking the NAFTA Survey!

Take NAFTA Survey

Take the 2010 NAFTA Benchmarking Survey

If you do not manage trade agreements at your company, feel free to share the link with your colleagues.

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2010-5
27

Boeing Urges Progress Towards Trade Agreements

Category: colombia, south korea, trade agreements, us | 1 Comment

According to today’s Financial Times, Boeing is urging Congress to pass languishing free trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea.

Jim McNerney, Chief Executive of Boeing, noted that the US economy is still “fragile” and said “We need to borrow less, save more, become more efficient and competitive and bring our exports back in line with our imports. Opening up and expanding new markets is paramount,” in his speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

The Financial Times states:Time's Up for Trade Agreements?

As chairman of President Barack Obama’s export council, Mr McNerney has been tasked with leading industry’s side of a campaign to double US exports within five years – an effort that the White House projects will create two million US jobs. Boeing is the world’s second-largest aircraft-maker and one of the US’s biggest exporting companies.

McNerney also added, “The Obama administration, in my view, is not moving fast enough. I would encourage them to move faster on … free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama.”

Although the US signed trade agreements with South Colombia, South Korea, and Panama in 2006 and 2007, Congress has failed to approve the agreements. Companies are looking to President Obama to get the ball rolling again to pass these agreements into effect.

Specifically, McNerney believes Korea and Colombia to be new markets where European corporations (Ahem, Airbus perhaps?) were able to export under a lower-tariff regime than US Companies.

Read more at: “Boeing urges faster action on trade deals” in the Financial Times.

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2010-5
21

Take the NAFTA Benchmarking Survey

Category: NAFTA, trade agreement management, trade agreements | 1 Comment

Are you interested in learning about the best practices of firms qualifying product for NAFTA and other Free Trade Agreements?

Many firms walk away from these duty savings due to the difficulty of learning origin rules or due to the time-frame involved in accurately qualifying a product for reduced duties – even when the benefits are significant.

Please participate in a survey on how companies manage NAFTA qualification! With the results, we hope to advance industry knowledge of best practices and better understand overall use of NAFTA processes across a wide spectrum of organizations.

Take NAFTA SurveyTake the 2010 NAFTA Benchmarking Survey

This is a brief survey and should take less than 10 minutes to complete. Your answers are kept strictly confidential and will be reported anonymously.

Customs & Trade Solutions, Inc. and Management Dynamics are working to identify best practices when dealing with the complexities of NAFTA. Our goal is to identify best practices, and pass those along to you so that your company may benefit from improved processes and procedures.

The results will be used to prepare a report which Management Dynamics and CTSI Advisors will distribute during the AAEI Annual Conference, June 6-8. If you plan to attend the AAEI Conference, please stop by our booth for a copy of the results. Otherwise, we will email you a copy when it’s ready.

Take the 2010 NAFTA Benchmarking Survey

The survey will close on June 2nd, so please be sure to participate early.

Please refer to your own company’s policy on whether this would be considered a work-related activity, and be sensitive to what data about the company can be provided.

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2010-5
13

International Compliance Professional Association Conference in Amsterdam

Category: EU, free trade agreements, trade agreements | 1 Comment

Management Dynamics will be exhibiting at ICPA’s First Annual European Conference, in Amsterdam June 13 – 15. If you have not registered yet, it’s not too late. (We’d love to see you there!)

Conference sessions will include:

  • Trade Compliance Implications of Simplified EU Law
  • Confronted with an Audit: The Do’s and Don’ts
  • Customs Classification –The Latest Developments in EU Law
  • The Impact of the AEO Legislation: Lessons Learned from the Pilot Project & Implementations in Other Member States
  • Compliance with EU Sanctions
  • Export Control Fundamentals for Trade Compliance Managers
  • Introduction to Customs Valuation and Transfer Pricing
  • VAT Implications of Transfer Pricing & Customs Adjustments
  • Centralized Clearing
  • Rules of Origin
  • IT Challenges in Effective Export Control Compliance
  • Conducting Effective Internal Audits: Best Practices
  • Tariff Engineering: Developments, Issues & Opportunities
  • Risk Determination for Export Compliance
  • EU Trade Compliance Share Forum: Overview & Proceedings

For more information on the conference, or to register, please visit http://icpainc.org/conferences/eu/.

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2010-5
12

Foreign Trade Zones: Management Dynamics & FTZ Corporation Partner Up

Category: free trade agreements, trade agreement management | 1 Comment
Management Dynamics and FTZ Corporation Announce Strategic Partnership
Alliance will Integrate & Expand Use of Foreign Trade Zones in Global Trade Management

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, May 12, 2010 — Management Dynamics, a leading provider of Global Trade Management solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with FTZ Corporation, a leading provider of Foreign Trade Zone consulting services and developer of the SmartZone Premier application. The partnership seeks to expand the use of foreign-trade zones integrated with core Global Trade Management (GTM) processes of import compliance, export compliance and trade agreement management.

Foreign Trade Zones have been in use for nearly seventy six years with the passage of the Foreign Trade Zones Act of 1934 to expedite and encourage foreign commerce. Foreign Trade Zones are now a key component of U.S. trade policy and offer companies several opportunities to reduce costs with:

  • Exemption of duty payment upon re-export of goods
  • Relief from inverted tariffs where raw materials with high duty rates can be transformed to an end product with a low duty rate
  • Use of consolidated weekly entries to reduce merchandise processing fees (MPFs)
  • Deferral of duty on any inventory stored within an FTZ

For many companies these benefits can justify the investment in a Foreign-Trade Zone in the first year of operation.

“Foreign-trade zones are becoming an integral part of a company’s GTM strategy and their use is expanding given the strong value proposition and fast pay back,” said Craig Pool, President, FTZ Corporation. “Our customers are looking to integrate foreign-trade zones across their GTM processes and we look forward to working with Management Dynamics to deliver this solution.”

FTZ Corporation has extensive experience, having implemented over two hundred and fifty Foreign-Trade Zone projects. The company is also active in Washington D.C. with involvement in recent industry advancements including the passage of Weekly Entry legislation and opening up the benefits of Foreign-Trade Zones to new industries. FTZ Corporation offers a complete set of implementation services including the application to the FTZ Board and activation of the zone with Customs and Border Protection. Combined with the implementation of SmartZone Premier software, FTZ Corporation can cut the time to first benefit with a “turnkey” implementation.

“Implementing a foreign-trade zone program can generate millions in recurring savings and is a key initiative for companies as the global economy is rebuilding,” said Jim Preuninger, CEO, Management Dynamics. “FTZ Corporation has a tremendous track record of success in this industry and we look forward to working together to expand the GTM market.”

For more information on capitalizing on free trade agreements, watch our Free Trade Agreement Webinar or download our Free Trade Agreement Benchmark Report.

About FTZ Corporation
The Foreign-Trade Zone Corporation is the only nationally recognized consulting firm with a practice focused on Foreign Trade-Zone consulting. The firm provides a wide range of consulting work from Foreign-Trade Zones Board applications to activations with Customs and Border Protection, and administers nine foreign-trade zone projects. Its management of these projects is in keeping with the Foreign-Trade Zone Corporation’s philosophy that there is no substitute for hands-on-experience.
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