Lowering or eliminating your customs duties by leveraging free trade agreements or trade preference programs is a smart business strategy. There is an essential requirement to free trade agreement utilization: validating the product against its Rule of Origin (i.e. qualification).  These rules define the criteria by which a product is eligible for participation in the trade program.  When a product is wholly obtained and produced in a single country, it is relatively easy to determine its eligibility.  Difficulties arise in determining eligibility of goods manufactured in, assembled in, or using materials originating in, more than one country.

It was a busy Saturday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit as trade ministers from 11 countries announced an agreement to push ahead with a trade deal whose destiny was uncertain after President Donald Trump dropped out a few months ago. Despite the US decision to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact to pursue an ‘America First’ protectionist trade agenda, the remaining 11 countries came away with a blueprint to start trading more freely between themselves in a resurrected form of the TPP deal. 

Most global trade professionals are aware that free trade agreements, such as NAFTA, CAFTA, and the plethora of bilateral trade agreements can save companies millions of dollars annually in duties and taxes. This is turn creates an attractive opportunity for exporters to grow their business overseas by making their products more affordable in growing markets. Unfortunately, many organizations choose not to leverage FTAs due to the complexity and dynamic regulatory environment associated with each unique FTA. Trade professionals who still use manual or outdated FTA management solutions could be paying up to several million dollars more than necessary each year.

In a new customer testimonial video featuring Benjamin Moore, Peter Shea, Senior Manager of Customs Import/Export Compliance, discusses how the challenges associated with achieving their company mission led them to Amber Road and ultimately to saving millions of dollars, accelerating cash flows and making massive progress in just four months.

Japan and the EU account for more than a third of the world’s GDP, so the upcoming EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) has businesses from both continents evaluating the impact of this landmark agreement as it nears its negotiation and launch. The impact on tariff and non-tariff measures alike are substantial and provide opportunities for companies of all sizes.

Join Amber Road’s Global Trade Academy for a webinar tomorrow, Tuesday, September 26, at 2PM EST, to explore some of the agreement’s key aspects, with contributions from Suzanne Richer, Director of Amber Road’s Global Trade Academy, and Nick Boland, Director of Solutions Consulting EMEA.

The second round of the NAFTA Modernization negotiations concluded on September 5th in Mexico City. Although progress was declared by the three parties, they have chosen to postpone discussions of major sticking points. The second round of negotiations included tabling two dozen drafts for a modernized NAFTA agreement.

Chief U.S. negotiator and US Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, concluded the second round on a conciliatory note. In his closing statement, Lighthizer indicated that the United States, Mexico, and Canada “found mutual agreement on many important issues.”

The first round of negotiation meetings of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 2.0 were held in Washington D.C. on August 16-20, 2017. The negotiating parties convened to modernize the NAFTA agreement (implemented in 1994) at the request of the Trump Administration. Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the Agreement, unless new terms (favorable to the U.S.) are struck.

Global trade and policies are changing quickly. Leaders of the world’s biggest economies are trying to have it both ways on trade – protectionism with a commitment to free trade. This leaves companies that move goods and services across borders between a rock and a hard place when it comes to sorting out their business.

On July 8, 2017, at the G20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, the EU and Canada officially announced the provisional application of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) - the modern-day Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EU and Canada. The date of implementation has been officially set for September 21, 2017. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that "98 percent of the CETA agreement will take effect on 21 September."

After four and a half years of negotiation, it is looking increasingly likely that the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will be concluded toward the end of 2017. Successful meetings in April and July, backed by strong supporting messages from both sides, means that this landmark deal will create an agreement that aligns two economies accounting for more than a third of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

To add some scale to what that translates into, there are about 74,000 EU companies that export to Japan (source: eu.europa.com) paying in excess of €1 billion per year in tariffs, along with some 600,000 jobs supported by EU trade with Japan.