As part of Section 303 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),duty-free treatment of the Maquiladoras ENDED on November 1, 2000. For this reason, Maquiladora operators are subject to import duties and taxes into Mexico, but are able to use a duty deferral program for their Mexican Maquiladora entries. Under the terms of NAFTA, Maquiladoras now are considered permanent establishments in Mexico where they have historically been treated as temporary businesses, thus affording preferential treatment. Goods sourced outside of the NAFTA Territories (Mexico,Canada and the United States)now are subject to duties and taxes going into the Maquiladoras when they never were before, including exposure to Anti-Dumping and Countervailing duties which often exceed 100% of the value of the merchandise.

Maquiladora operators and their U.S. customers need to be aware of the impact of the change. Expeditors Tradewin, LLC has developed a program to help companies analyze their Bills of Material to determine what the exposure will be. maq!cl¡c™, an established Tradewin^® service,provides the answers necessary to effectively manage this change. Through maq!cl¡c™, an understanding of the exposure as well as measures that can be adopted now to take advantage of lower duty rates, gives a competitive edge under the changes in the law.

maq!cl¡c™ also provides an organized record of Mexican duty liabilities and U.S. duties that will assist in satisfying the Mexican pedimento documentation requirements. maq!cl¡c™ provides a detailed analysis by Bill of Material that can be provided to the Mexican Customs Broker to substantiate and facilitate the payment of Mexican duty. The documentation is available in both English and Spanish.

maq!cl¡c™ was developed with Maquiladora processes and systems in mind. maq!cl¡c™ was designed by former key U.S. Customs officials, one of whom negotiated NAFTA for the United States. Bills of Material can be transmitted electronically to Tradewin^® for processing and analysis. U.S. and Mexican tariff rates are updated continuously. In addition,Tradewin^® keeps current with all Mexican Sectoral promotional programs which can affect the duty rates of merchandise currently being utilized in a Maquiladora.

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