The Internet has certainly broken down the barriers in buying across the US border. Today, you can sit in Florida, search Google, MSN, or Yahoo for blue-mold cheese, compare prices, make a purchase, and have it delivered to your doorstep – at least that is what most people would like to believe. However the stark reality is that there is a complex world of Customs issues that must be navigated before the goods make it to your doorstep. Failure to comply with the myriad of regulations or pay duties and taxes could lead to fines, confiscation of goods, and even jail term. According to US. Customs and Border Protection, on a typical day officers seize $1.9 million in merchandise. This article, the first in a two part series, aims to point out the obstacles that individuals or businesses should be aware of before buying on the internet for import.



For illustrative purposes let us examine a scenario involving blue-mold cheese purchased from Argentina or from any European Community based online store. Because the cheese was purchased from a foreign country the buyer is now considered an importer. Even more important, cheese is a diary product so the importer must comply not only with import duties as applicable but also with restrictions pursuant to the Agriculture Adjustment Act or else the cheese could be seized. Diary products typically require a permit/license to be imported. Additionally, the importer must check whether the quota on cheese has been filed or not. Quotas are quantitative restrictions on product for a specific period of time.

For the whole year, the quota for blue-mold cheese is as follows: from Chile 80,000 kg, European Community 2,829,000 kg, and Other countries or areas 1kg.. When the aggregate amount of imports exceeds the established quota amounts no further imports of blue-mold cheese from those countries will be allowed. The next thing the importer has to worry about is the tariff classification number according to the Harmonized tariff schedule- a technical publication of 3063 pages of legalese, rules of interpretation, import duties, and taxes. Clearly aforementioned steps will consume a lot of time and resources, which begs the question is there an easier way to figure all this out just as it was easy to find the cheese with a few mouse clicks?

A number of companies try to make it easier to get at the information we have discussed here – Fedex (www.fedex.com), TariffPro (http://www.tariffpro.com) and even the US government (http://hotdocs.usitc.gov/tariff_chapters_current) provides capability to get the information, each with varying degrees of ease and each of the with a different value proposition for the importer. What is important is for you as an importer to know what information the need to get and make sure you have all the necessary information to make a good import decision.