End of 2015 QUOTA Processing for U.S. Shipments
TPL (Tariff Preference Level)
Willson International Inc. will be adhering to the following procedure for shipments requiring a Certificate of Eligibility to ensure filing of the entry summary prior to December 31st, 2015.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) requires shipments that utilize a Certificate of Eligibility to be presented for entry summary by the last day of the year. For example, a 2015 certificate, e.g., 9CA153456 must be entered by December 31st 2015 (Please be aware that there have been cases where the US government has made the 31st a holiday, if that is the case then are transactions need to be submitted by December 30th).
Any shipment that is released in 2015 and entered in 2016 will be considered late. This may result in a late file penalty and/or the Certificate(s) of Eligibility being denied. If a Certificate of Eligibility is denied, the entire amount of product covered by the certificate will be FULLY DUTIABLE. Additionally, any entry summary rejected by CBP for verification that has to be filed in 2016 will be considered late.
Willson International Inc. requires time to obtain a Certificate of Eligibility and process the entry summary for timely submission to CBP. Due to the filing deadline in place by CBP, our TPL filing cut-off date is Monday December 21st.
Shipments released after December 21st will not be guaranteed filing by December 31st. Please remember that the actual release date of the shipment is the date the carrier crosses the border and is released by CBP, not the date the PAPS/SCN is processed.
While we will make every effort to file all TPL shipments released in 2015 timely for the calendar year, we cannot guarantee the timely submission of any shipments cleared after December 21st 2015. Any penalties or additional duties incurred will be the direct responsibility of the Importer of Record, not Willson International Inc.
TRQ (Tariff Rate Quota)
Many items are subject to Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs). TRQs are a two-stage tariff, which imposes a lower rate of duty on imports up to the quota level and a higher rate of duty on imports over-quota. Typically, after the quota level is filled, NAFTA cannot be claimed and the high rate of duty will apply.
While TRQs on several products re-open (start with a 0% fill rate) during the year, most will re-open on January 4th, 2016.   Some TRQs fill at opening moment. If you plan to ship goods subject to a TRQ opening on January 4th, 2016 that you feel may close at opening moment, please contact the Willson office at the border crossing at which the shipment will cross to make prior arrangements for your clearance.
Monitoring TPL & TRQ Levels
If you plan to ship goods subject to a TRQ or TPL, please monitor the quota (via the web link shown below) and advise the Willson office at the port of arrival prior to shipment when the quota level reaches 85% to make arrangements to have the entry submitted timely and to discuss whether the truck will wait while entry is made to see if the quota is still open and whether it will return to Canada if closed.
For the weekly Commodity Status Report for TRQs and TPLs, which shows the current rate filled as of the date of the report and the start and end rates of each quota period, go to: http://www.cbp.gov/trade/quota/tariff-rate-quotas
If you have any questions or concerns on this matter, you may contact our US Transition Team at transitionus@willsonintl.044d949.netsolhost.com.