Cutting red tape to increase exports of Made in America products and to ensure that American goods become part of global supply chains.
Cutting the red tape of trade, including by reducing costs and increasing customs efficiencies, will make it cheaper, easier, and faster for businesses to get their products to market. In TPP, we are looking to facilitate trade across the TPP region; support the deep integration of U.S. logistics, manufacturing, and other industries in regional supply chains; and reduce costs for U.S. business by removing onerous and opaque customs barriers. This is particularly valuable for small- and medium-sized enterprises that find it difficult to navigate complex customs procedures.
OBJECTIVES
- Increase transparency by ensuring that all customs laws, regulations, and procedures are published on the Internet as well as designate points of contact for traders to get questions answered.
- Ensure that, to the greatest extent possible, shipments are kept in ports no longer than necessary to comply with customs laws.
- Provide expedited customs treatment to express delivery shipments.
- Strengthen cooperation against illegal trade in counterfeit goods, wildlife trafficking, and goods illegally transshipped through TPP countries from third countries to evade tariffs.
- Ensure that customs penalties are administered in an impartial and transparent manner, and that countries avoid conflicts of interest in administering penalties.
- TPP’s rules of origin provisions are designed to ensure that only goods that originate in the TPP region receive preferential treatment under the Agreement—this approach supports production and jobs in the United States and helps link U.S. firms into regional supply chains, reducing the incentive for companies to move production abroad in order to remain competitive.
- Establish strong and common rules of origin to ensure that the benefits of TPP go to the United States and other TPP countries.
- Ensure that goods only receive the benefits of the Agreement only if they are wholly obtained or produced within the TPP region; produced in a TPP country exclusively from other TPP originating materials; or produced in a TPP country from materials that meet the product-specific rules.
- Put in place a common TPP-wide system for traders to show that their goods are made in the TPP region and for customs to verify that traders are following the rules of origin.
- Strengthen incentives to integrate production and supply chains within the TPP region to make it more attractive to do business with producers in the United States.
- Provide specific instructions for rules based on regional value content or de minimis thresholds.
RESOURCES
For more information on rules of origin, visit WWW.USTR.GOV/TRADE-AGREEMENTS/WTO-MULTILATERAL-AFFAIRS/WTO-ISSUES/CUSTOMS-ISSUES/RULES-ORIGIN
