Custom and importing laws - and Free Trade zones

[MattV]

Hi,
I'm still looking for a comprehensive source of trade laws information. I've been trhough many (american) state's chambers of commerce, etc, and found no more info than: consult an expert.

Here's the deal: I want to import leather shoes to the states.

Firstly,
IF I arrive at an airport with 1, 2 or 4 clothing items I know by experience and it is obvious that I'd have no problem.

If I arrived with 200 I probably would. (I want to get there but not before a more modest experience)

so where's the line?
Is importation of shoewear a regulated and taxated activity?

If so, how do I get a licence?

Secondly,
If I want to eventually import on a much larger scale, I'd like to benefit from Miami's "free trade" area. How do these work? Can you get around having to pay an agent?

I want to do everything right and square, but government regulations are mind-boggling to me.

[Moof]

I've had some experience in European and African trade, thoguh none in the US, but I suspect it's much the same anywhere.

In general, anything entering or exiting a country has to go through a process of "import" or "export" through the country's Customs. Anything that is beyond the customs border is known as a "free zone" or "international zone". It marks the boundary between what is legally considered the country in question for tax purposes, and the bit that is not considered the country in question for tax purposes.

As such, if you take, say, some shoes off a boat, and then leave them within the "free zone", such as the quay, the warehousing, or whatever, you won't have to pay import duties on them. This is useful if you're buying a crate of shoes from, say, Turkey, snd want to send them to the States, and there is no direct ship. You can drop the crate off in Spain and wait for a Spain-USA ship to come and pick it up, and not have to pay any taxes or duty on it.

There are also Free Zones that are not attached to ports, airports, and the like. These tend to be in countries, such as Morocco or India, which want to promote manufacturing. The items manufactured within these Free Zones can be taken on sealed containers to a port and shipped without having to be imported into the country and then exported with all the paperwork and fees that entails.

All Aiports have an international zone, it tends to be marked explicitly "Country Border" or implicitly by having a customs post there. On the way out of airports you tend not to see them, but they tend to be near Passport control. On the way in, that's what all that "nothing to declare" and "goods to declare" stuff are about. This is also why Duty Free works, as the products sold in Duty Free shops have not been imported into the country and had any of the taxes applied to it.

Who decides how much import duty is paid on an item varies from country to country. The amount to pay also varies from country to country. The people who apply the law are customs officers, who may at the same time be some of the local police forces (e.g. Spain), or not (e.g. UK). These people sometimes need to be persuaded to see things one way or another if the duty rates are different - e.g. are teacakes "cakes" or "buiscuits"?

The exemptions vary from country to country. It's generally held that items that are "personal" are exempt from duty and taxation. There are certain limits on things like alcohol and cigarretes, and so on. Where the limit lies is something you need to convince a customs officer of, sometimes.

Any goods that you bring into a country without declaring and importing in the legal manner are generally considered contraband, aka "black market", and illegal to sell in most jurisdictions. If you plan to make money of things you import, make sure you can account for every single item in your inventory, as tax or customs authorites *will* inspect you. There could be criminal charges in selling contraband.

You can do the import process yourself, but, in much the same way as a lawyer is an expert at getting proceedings through a couthouse, there is someone known as a "Forwarding Agent", "Transit agent" or "Transitaire" who is an expert at getting things through a customs border. He will normally advise you as to what paperwork you need (original bills from the company you bought the items from, normally), and what paperwork you'll need to fill in at the border he works at. He'll probably also, for a fee, take care of the proceedings, and all you need to say is "my box is box number X from ship Y, and my van is over here".

There are transportation companies that specialise in a more "door to door" service, picking the crate up at your manufacturer, and delivering it to your shop. Choosing one of these to get you started is probably a more sensible option. They aren't really that much more expensive than doing it yourself.

Do you need an importation license? Talk to your local customs office. The answer is "probably not", as these days having a company is all that's needed for the paperwork. Is it regulated and taxated? Definitely, in much the same way as all import is. However, there may be tax exemptions for certain things. Talk to a forwarding agent to find out if shoes form your country of origin are exempt.

I suspect taking advantage of the free zone is unlikely to work in your case, other than in the stanadard import sense. Warehousing is much cheaper outside of a free zone than inside it. If you're selling to end customers, you want to do so outside of the free zone, as otherwise they'll have to go through the import process themselves. In general, commerce inside a free zone is severly limited. That is, unless I misunderstand the concept of Miami's "free trade" area, which I've never looked into before and may be a completely different concept.

Ayway, I'm not a lawyer, or a forwarding agent, but I hope the overview helps you understand your problems.

Edited to add: In some jurisdictions, much as you need to be a certified notary to do certain things, or a certified lawyer to do certain things, you may need to be a certified transit agent to move goods past a customs border. So maybe being told "consult an expert" is actually because you legally need one to get the stuff through. Anyway, your local port's customs post should be able to inform you of that at the very least.