"First Sale Rule" for Customs Valuation of US Imports - USITC

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface...............................................................................................................................................
Executive Summary .........................................................................................................................
Abbreviations and Acronyms .........................................................................................................
Page
i
iii
vii
Chapter 1. Introduction................................................................................................................... 1-1
Purpose, scope, and organization ................................................................................................ 1-2
Approach and data sources.......................................................................................................... 1-3
Chapter 2. Analysis of First Sale and Transaction Value Data ................................................... 2-1
Number and frequency of importers that used the First Sale rule: Aggregate use ...................... 2-1
Number of importers that used the First Sale rule by sector ....................................................... 2-3
Value of imports that used the First Sale rule ............................................................................. 2-7
The transaction value of imports ................................................................................................. 2-11
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................... Biblio-1
Appendices
A. Legislation ……………. ........................................................................................................ A-1
B. Federal Register notices......................................................................................................... B-1
C. Summary of positions of interested parties ............................................................................ C-1
D. Additional tables..................................................................................................................... D-1
Figures
ES.1 Only the textiles, apparel, and footwear sector had both above-average First Sale use and
above-average tariff rate...................................................................................................... iv
1.1 Example of a series of transactions for which the First Sale rule might be applicable .......... 1-1
2.1 The number of importers that used the First Sale rule was widely distributed across
broad sectors........................................................................................................................ 2-5
2.2 By value, a few broad sectors accounted for most First Sale use........................................... 2-8
2.3 The value of First Sale merchandise as a share of total import value was particularly high
for textiles, apparel, footwear, food, and agriculture .......................................................... 2-8
2.4 First Sale use was sometimes associated with high tariff rates .............................................. 2-10
Tables
ES.1 Top ten First Sale HTS chapters, by First Sale value and share............................................. iv
2.1 Monthly First Sale use was stable and reflected overall U.S. import trends .......................... 2-3
2.2 The number of importers that used the First Sale rule varied substantially by HTS chapter . 2-6
D.1 First Sale data discrepancies................................................................................................... D-3
D.2 First Sale data by source country, September 2008 to August 2009 (leading 50 sources)..... D-5
D.3 Detailed import data for First Sale analysis, September 2008 to August 2009 ...................... D-7
ix