Currently, consumer and professional electronic products are likely to be subject to customs duty when imported into the EU and other jurisdictions. A new WTO (World Trade Organization) trade agreement on information technology has recently been signed. The agreement, commonly known as the “ITA Expansion”, is expected to eliminate customs duties on a wide range of electronic products for import into the following markets:

•       Albania

•       Australia

•       Canada

•       China

•       Costa Rica

•       European Union

•       Guatemala

•       Hong Kong

  

•       Iceland

•       Israel

•       Japan

•       Korea

•       Malaysia

•       Montenegro

•       New Zealand

 

  

•       Norway

•       Philippines

•       Singapore

•       Switzerland

          (and Liechtenstein)

•       Taiwan

•       Thailand

•       United States

Customs duties will be eliminated either upon entry into force on 1 July 2016, or within three, five, or seven years. The EU will reduce duties to zero for roughly 50 percent of the products covered when the agreement enters into force in July 2016.

What should you do to make sure you take advantage of the ITA Expansion?

The product coverage of the ITA Expansion is mainly structured according to tariff classification. For imports, we recommend to review the tariff classification and product descriptions in the ITA Expansion to see whether they relate to your commodities and, if so, how duty reductions will be staged. To ensure that no duty-saving opportunities are missed or whether too many savings are claimed, we recommend that the existing classifications are reviewed for correctness.

What we can offer you?

By using our data-analytics solution we are able to link your current customs classification to the ITA expansion to ensure that you have covered all ITA opportunities. In addition, our customs classification specialists can support you to review the existing classifications for correctness. Statistical sampling is one of the methods commonly used.

Meijburg & Co Contact Information

For additional information on our Trade and Customs Practice and its Export Control & Sanctions Services, please contact your local KPMG Meijburg & Co advisor or go to our website:

http://www.meijburg.com/page/trade-customs