A clear understanding of the potential challenges and a comprehensive contingency plan will help you to navigate the uncertainty of the future of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and mitigate the impact on your bottom line.
North American companies have benefitted from the duty-free movement of goods under NAFTA for more than 20 years. In many cases, this is longer than the tenure of most companies senior customs team members. Most of us don’t even remember what pre-NAFTA international trading looked like. What is the pre-NAFTA experience of your team and how quickly can you put together a plan if NAFTA ceases to exist?
Areas to consider:
- Commonly used tariff classifications may be incorrect resulting in an underpayment or overpayment of duties under MFN rates.
- Customer buying patterns will be impacted by higher duties and increased complications in import-export activity.
- Opportunities for alternate sourcing/strategic buying under other available FTA's.
- Opportunities for duty recovery that were not investigated under NAFTA