| In a differentiation effort and a true desire to inform | | | | the value of the product plus the applicable duty |
| and educate, I will try to not constantly reiterate and | | | | rates. It is actually one of the only Constitutionally |
| rant and rave about the same things all the | | | | outlined and defined ways in which the Federal |
| conservative writers are ranting about. I am going to | | | | Government is allowed to tax you. It is also |
| be reporting and commenting to you on items before | | | | important for American business to compete on level |
| and being considered by Congress that you will | | | | playing fields and not suffer through "unfair" trade |
| probably not read about elsewhere. In my | | | | practices that artificially make a competitors product |
| professional capacity, I have to keep up with current | | | | less expensive. Real cases like this would include |
| events that may effect my industry. I stumbled upon | | | | foreign government subsidies to industries, prison or |
| this little tidbit last week, from a publication called | | | | slave labor, large companies using predatory practices |
| Broker Power. | | | | to run home industries out of business, but I digress. |
| The undervaluation of China origin textiles and apparel | | | | The Government has limited leeway in raising duty |
| is thought to be a huge problem, in part because the | | | | rates for products because of global trade |
| textile and apparel industry represents 21% of all | | | | agreements and that type of thing sets off trade |
| importers, 5% of the value of all imports, and 42% | | | | wars and all sorts of international attention - so in |
| of all duties collected. | | | | general, they don't like to do it. Instead, they will |
| Thus, Customs and Border Protection will be | | | | take the valuation approach to accomplish the same |
| investigating whether or not the value of the | | | | goals. |
| products coming into the country from China are | | | | This is how it works, if Customs determines that a |
| fairly valued. Up until now, I would have been fine | | | | t-shirt being imported is really worth $5.00 instead of |
| with this. Times have changed and I believe that the | | | | $.50 then the duty and tax due on the product is |
| above move could be used solely for political gain and | | | | increased greatly. The importer will then of course, |
| for gathering more money to the insatiable Federal | | | | include the increase in cost to you - the consumer of |
| Beast. | | | | the T-shirt. |
| How it works is thus, each import into the USA has a | | | | The beauty of it for the Federal Government is that |
| declared value. The Importer pays duty and taxes on | | | | you will never know. |