China is responding to its ongoing tension with the US and EU in some surprising ways – including setting up manufacturing and distribution hubs in Mexico and increasing its involvement in Latin America. What does this have to do with your business? More than you think.
It is important to have your contracts with foreign companies be in their language as well, for a whole host of reasons. The main reason is to achieve clarity. Having a well-written contract in their native language assures you that your foreign counter-party with which you are doing business truly understands what you want of it. It puts the two of you on the same page.
Western managers with China experience know the challenges (and risks) that come with cross-border negotiations. Those considering a move to Mexico will have to navigate a new set of cultural adjustments.
The shift away from the unipolar and free trade-oriented world of the 1990s and early 2000s to the peer competition-driven managed trade and industrial policies of today has resulted in an increasingly restrictive and protected U.S. import environment. The significantly stepped-up enforcement activity that characterizes this trend has, in turn, increased compliance risk for U.S. importers. This post will attempt to help U.S. importers mitigate some of that compliance risk through a set of up-to-date import practice tips.
With all that has been happening, the international manufacturing lawyers at my law firm have been getting a steady stream of phone calls and emails from companies looking to leave China and many of those companies are curious about Mexico.
CEOs and senior managers have been struggling to make good decisions about supply chain and factory sites, and a lot of their research is pointing to Mexico as a likely candidate. The problem facing decision-makers is that the China-Mexico comparison is not apples to apples (DO NOT make avocado-lychee reference). Even though the same output is leaving the factory gate in each economy, your challenges in setting up and managing operations in China and Mexico could not be more different.
If you purchase products from China (or most anywhere else oversees), do NOT use FOB as a shipping term.
During the summer of 2020, the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) handed down its final ruling. Before former US President Donald Trump blocked appointments to the Appellate Body—which effectively disbanded it—the Appellate Body served as the final round of arbitrators that would give the ultimate verdict on international trade disputes between countries.
Expect U.S. customs to get even tougher on imports in the next year.
Citing the ongoing genocide, crimes against humanity, and other human rights abuses committed by the People’s Republic of China (China) against ethnic and religious minority groups in the western part of the country, Congress acted to strengthen CBP’s ability to enforce the forced labor prohibitions set forth in Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 by enacting the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA) on 23 December 2021. To this end, the UFLPA applies a presumption that goods produced/manufactured (either wholly or in part) or mined in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) or by entities designated on the UFLPA Entity List are made with forced labor and prohibited from entering the U.S.
