• How to protect your intellectual property rights.
• How the "reasonable care" standard works.
• How to make the Customs Laws work for you.
• New developments in electronic filing and communications.
• Compliance issues and criminal liability.

This course will discuss the importation requirements under the United States Customs laws and how businesses can navigate these potentially treacherous waters while taking advantage of available opportunities.

Under the U.S. Customs laws, importers are required to use “reasonable care” to enter, classify and value imported goods, and to provide any other information necessary to enable Customs to properly assess duties, collect accurate statistics and determine whether any other applicable legal requirements are met. This course will explain how to classify and value goods as well as other various legal requirements so that a business will be better able to use “reasonable care” when importing goods. The use of “reasonable care” by a business is important because the failure to do so may lead to delay in the importation of goods or the imposition of substantial penalties. An importer’s simple negligence in classifying or valuing imported goods could result in a monetary penalty ranging from one-half the loss of Customs duties to two times the loss of Customs duties or even the domestic value of the goods. In addition, an importer who fails to properly mark imported goods with their country of origin may be subject to an additional duty of 10% of the value of the goods. Of greater personal concern, an importer may be subject to criminal penalties for the removal of the country of origin marking from imported goods.

Course coverage includes how Customs laws can protect a company’s intellectual property rights. A business can register a trademark or copyright with Customs and Customs will exclude goods that infringe this trademark or copyright at the U.S. border. Customs can be a policeman at the border to protect intellectual property rights.

The Customs laws contain various provisions that allow importers to defer, obtain a refund and even avoid the payment of Customs duties on imported goods. For example, an importer can use a Customs bonded warehouse to temporarily store imported goods without the payment of Customs duties while it finds a buyer for these goods. In addition, provisions exist that allow a business to pay a lower rate of duty on imported goods from certain countries. Goods from Canada and Mexico, for example, are subject to the lower duty rates of the North American Free Trade Agreement rather than the duty rates charged goods from other countries. This course will explain the requirements of these provisions and how a business can minimize the effect of Customs duties on its business operations.

In addition, this course will cover what happens to a business when Customs comes to call, outlining the types of monetary penalties that apply to an importer. An importer can be subject to a monetary penalty equal to the domestic value of the imported goods, as well as seizure and forfeiture of goods for violations of the Customs laws. How a business may protect itself from these monetary penalties is a primary emphasis. For example, an importer can make a “prior disclosure” to Customs of a violation of the Customs laws and reduce the amount of penalties, even to zero in some cases, due to Customs.

Finally, the course will discuss the importation process and the U.S. Customs Service’s efforts to modernize this process through electronic means. For example, a great deal of information required by Customs may be provided electronically rather than by paper documents. The more paper preparation and document-moving that is reduced from an international transaction, the more costs can be removed and further predictability provided.

Two Washington, D.C. attorneys will present this course. They each have extensive experience in Customs laws and have lectured both in the U.S. and abroad. Their credentials are detailed below. In addition, each participant will receive extensive course materials on the topics covered.

1. INTRODUCTION
   
2. IMPORTATION PROCESS
   1. Entry
   2. Bonds
   3. Examination
   4. Release
   5. Entry Summary
   6. Reconciliation
   7. Liquidation/Reliquidation
   8. Redelivery
   9. Protest Procedures
   
   
3. CUSTOMS MODERNIZATION
   1. Informed Compliance
   2. Shared Responsibility
   3. National Customs Automation Program
   
   
4. TARIFF CLASSIFICATION
   
5. VALUATION
   
6. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN AND MARKING
   1. Determining Country of Origin
   2. Marking Requirements
   3. FTC Requirements
   
   
7. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS BORDER ENFORCEMENTS
   
8. DUTY DEFERRAL OPTIONS
   1. Transportation in Bond
   2. Temporary Importation Under Bond
   3. Bonded Warehouses
   4. Duty Drawback
   5. Foreign Trade Zones
   
   
9. FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS AND DUTY PREFERENCE PORGRAMS
   1. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
   2. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)
   3. Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI)
   4. American Goods Returned to the U.S.
   
   
10. PENALTIES
    1. Section 1592 Penalties
    2. Seizure and Forfeiture
    3. Prior Disclosures
    4. Penalty Procedures
    5. Liquidated Damages
    
    
11. COMPLIANCE ASSESSMENT
    1. What is a Compliance Assessment
    2. Compliance Assessment Process
    3. Results of Compliance Assessment
    4. Assessments vs. Audits
    
    
12. RECORDKEEPING REQUIREMENTS
    1. Records that Must be Retained ("(A)(1)(A) List")
    2. Who Must Retain Records
    3. Recordkeeping Penalties