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Learn More About Partner Government Agencies and Alphabet Agencies

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If you are regularly importing goods into the United States, you might be familiar with the CBP – officially known as the US Customs and Border Protection agency. They are a United States Government law enforcement agency, whose main goal is to protect and maintain the integrity of our national borders.

When it comes to shipping merchandise in and out of the country, CBP has a number of rules and regulations that must be followed in order to avoid penalties such as fines or prosecution.
Naturally, due to the vast diversity of goods entering the country they have to work in conjunction with other government agencies to carefully establish and monitor the specific rules pertaining to things like perishable items, dangerous materials, and other consumer goods such as clothing and apparel.

These organizations are also known as Partner Government Agencies, or PGAs. Some of these are part of the Alphabet Agencies set up by president Roosevelt’s administration, such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). These different PGAs make up what is known as the Border Interagency Executive Council (BIEC).

Familiarize Yourself With Some of the PGAs

If you do any sort of freight forwarding, import/export, or international logistics, it is likely that you will come across a number of these agencies throughout your career. Each agency has its own import/export guide to help you stay on top of the various regulations to be followed.

US Department Agencies

These are the primary government agencies that you will come across whenever importing or exporting merchandise, goods, and products in and out of the United States:

• U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) covers everything relating to agriculture, including farming and plants.
  • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
  • APHIS Trade
  • Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
  • Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS)
  • Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS)
• U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) handles everything that relates to currency, including economic growth and welfare in our country.
  • Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)
  • United States Census Bureau (USCB)
  • National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
  • Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA)
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is responsible for maintaining the welfare and wellbeing of our citizens.
  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) is in charge of preserving our nation’s natural resources as well as cultural heritage.
  • Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS)
• U.S. Department of Treasury (DoT) holds the responsibility of managing and maintaining the U.S. financial systems and resources.
  • Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)
• U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), as the name suggests, is responsible for all forms of transportation throughout the country, including freight trucks.
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protects the environment and ensure our citizens have access to clean air, land, and water.
• Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is an agency that is tasked with the responsibility of protecting American citizens from any unnecessary dangers associated with the various products they consume.
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is in charge of regulating all international communication on all platforms, including radio, TV, wire, satellite, and cable.

All of these various organizations have a hand in safe-guarding our borders and ensuring that nothing enters the country that hasn’t been properly vetted, registered, approved, documented, and packaged as per BIEC standards.

Improve Efficiency and Avoid Penalties

Feeling like you’re swimming in a giant bowl of alphabet soup? Keeping up with all these acronyms can be enough to make your head spin! Don’t worry, we are here to help. Promptus LLC has a number of qualified, Licensed Customs Brokers available to help with all your PGA, BIEC, and CBP needs! Contact us today at 1-877-776-6799 to get a free quote for our services.

Everything Foreign Manufacturers Need to Know About AD/CVD

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In order to successfully import goods to this country, there are a number of rules and regulations that must be met. There are different organizations assigned to oversee various aspects of the import/export industry, such as the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency. Other agencies that assist with regulating foreign imports are the International Trade Commission (ITC) and the Department of Commerce (DOC).

These three organizations are particularly important when it comes to enforcing antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) on foreign manufacturers. It is important to take the time to go over the extent of AD/CVD orders to ensure that your merchandise does not fall under it. If it does, you must take the necessary steps to avoid incurring this penalty.

What Are Antidumping and Countervailing Duties?

Under the Tariff Act of 1930, the United States Department of Commerce implemented a system of rules that affect all foreign manufacturers planning to import their goods into the United States. It essentially requires all international importers to sell their goods at a fair price within the market. If the DOC finds that imported goods have been sold in the US at a subsidized or drastically reduced price, the company that imported the goods will be subject to antidumping and countervailing duties.

The intention of this is to level the playing field for American manufacturers and ensure that the market is not flooded with low-cost competition, ultimately making it impossible for American companies to push their goods in their own country.

This means that if you are a foreign manufacturer and have received subsidies or tax breaks for your government for importing goods into the US at unfairly low prices, you may be subject to AD/CVD.

How Do I Know If My Merchandise is Subject to AD/CV Duties?

As an international importer of goods into the United States, it is your sole responsibility to make yourself fully aware of the current market for your merchandise. The scope of your merchandise in regards to AD/CVD is at the discretion of the agencies administering the antidumping laws, however, you can refer to different resources to get a better understanding of AD/CVD operations.

Ultimately, as long as you do your homework and check the current duty rates of imported merchandise from your country into the United States, you should be able to avoid any unexpected taxes or fees.

Hire a Customs Broker to Help

A great way to ensure that you don’t miss anything is to hire a Licensed Customs Broker who has experience with international imports. At Promptus LLC, we have a number of qualified Customs Brokers available to help you sort through all the necessary paperwork and regulations to legally import goods into the United States. Contact us today to receive your Free Quote for our services!

Minimize the Impact of Disruptive Weather Patterns

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When it comes to climate patterns, nobody can truly foresee the damage that severe weather and natural disasters can inflict – especially when it comes to importing and exporting goods. Thankfully, there are a number of steps you can follow to help your business prepare for the worst, or better yet, plan for how to proceed during an emergency weather situation.

Assessing Weather and Disaster Risks

The UNSIDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) defines a disaster as “a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability, and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts.”

In layman’s terms, this means any devastating incident that disrupts everyday operation in any given area that cannot be resolved with local resources alone.

These disasters can occur due to a number of reasons, including geographical, meteorological, climatic, biological, hydrological, or even space-related. In most cases, a severe weather occurrence or a natural disaster will include disasters from numerous categories, such as a hurricane with severe flooding or heat waves with tornados. In any case, it is important to have systems in place that can be activated in case of one of these events.

Severe weather has been known to affect logistics, as well, with global supply chain management disruptions rising 29% since 2012. According to the 2017 Global Risks Report, extreme weather is considered a top risk. This may also be due in part to companies’ failure to properly prepare for the threat associated with severe weather warnings. TheStreet reports trucking companies in the United States lose an estimated $2.2 to $3.5 million annually because of weather delays. That’s a lot of money!

So what can you do to help your business be protected and prepared when severe weather or a natural disaster strikes? Discuss a plan of action.

Create a Contingency Plan

While there is very little you can do to sway the weather, you can take steps to ensure your import or export business doesn’t suffer too greatly from delays or damage. Take the time to develop a course of action that you and your employees should refer to in the event of a disaster or severe weather conditions. This arrangement is typically known as a disaster risk management plan. Here are some tips when creating your risk management plan that can help to minimize disruptions in your services.

Protect Yourself With Premier Logistics Services

At Promptus LLC, we are a multi-industry logistics company that works with a number of importers and exporters all over the globe. This requires us to stay on top of weather patterns in various areas throughout the world and to have multiple disaster management plans in place in the event that weather catastrophe occurs unexpectedly.

For the 15 years we have been in service, we have made it a point to employ the most advanced technology available to maximize efficiency for both our clients and us. Our headquarters are located in Miramar, FL, an area prone to hurricanes, so we are well experienced and wholly prepared to withstand powerful nature storms and weather disasters. We have plans of action in place to help minimize the risk of damage during weather emergencies. Call us today to get your free freight forwarding quote!