Where are the strawberries? Don't forget the assists!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a story makes the picture clear!


A young professional was just starting out and happened to have a very successful week. To celebrate, the professional wanted to make a cake. 

The professional asked their partner if they could bake a celebratory cake together!

"So what type of cake shall we bake?"

"Great question! How about a strawberry shortcake!"

"That would be difficult as we do not have white flour. Just whole wheat."

"Well, it can't be that different, let the whole wheat flour assist in the baking process."

"Oh my, just noticed, we have no oil, eggs, or cream and the icing is all used up! Shall we wait until our next grocery order to assist us in making the cake with the correct ingredients?"

"No problem. We can mix the flour with water and add some sugar. The end result should be great with no ramifications!"

"How about the strawberries? Don't we need those to assist in completing the recipe?"

"Ok. So we will have a Short-Cake instead of a strawberry shortcake. Leaving out all those assisting ingredients will not make a big difference."

Ninety minutes later, the cake is ready and they dig in for a taste. Of course, the celebration turns into an embarrassing moment when the cake tastes like sawdust.

Moral of the story... You need the proper ingredients to assist in making a strawberry shortcake or else the cake will come up really...

...short!

My Daughter's Canada Day Strawberry Shortcake


You are probably asking why all the above references to "assists" are highlighted in the story? Well, just like you can't have a strawberry shortcake without strawberries and other ingredients, the value portion of a Customs declaration needs to include all the "assists".

An example of an assist, from a Customs perspective, is when an importer provides goods or services to their vendor for free or at a reduced cost to produce the final product that will be imported. The vendor will basically charge the importer for the labor of production as all the materials used within the production were provided by the importer. So what is the value to declare?

More often than not, the cost of the materials (as well as other fees such as design and development, etc.) will be overlooked and not added to the declared value. That is similar to not adding the strawberries to the strawberry short-cake. Without adding the value of the assists, the value declared to Customs will be inaccurate, setting up for a situation where the taste of sawdust may be more welcoming than the probable upcoming duty assessment.

Within each Customs jurisdiction there is usually an outline of what costs are defined as an "assist" that have to be added to the value declared. These are basically the recipes to use to establish a complete and accurate declaration of value to Customs. 


Examples: 

Canada Border Services Agency Department Memorandum D13-3-12: 
https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/dm-md/d13/d13-3-12-eng.html 

US Customs and Border Protection Informed Compliance Publication:
https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2020-Feb/ICP-Customs-Value-2006-Final.pdf 


Don't forget to add the STRAWBERRIES and ASSISTS!!!

Location: Montreal, QC, Canada

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Know Your Audience

Image
Please allow me to take a moment to thank you for your patience. This posting is the first since January, and I reiterate my appreciation for all the shout outs and voices of support for all the posting made. My wife's birthday is in the summer and to celebrate, it is always amazing to see her enjoy some of her favorite culinary delights. - Braided spiced mozzarella cheese with a thin slice of tomato on melba toast - Creamed garlic salmon - Roasted veggies covered with sumac and shredded cheese - Glass of wine https://www.saltandlavender.com/salmon-pasta-creamy-garlic-sauce/ - 2 heads of broccoli - 1 large sweet potato - shredded cheese - half a teaspoon of sumac - melba toast crackers - braided spiced mozzarella cheese  - 1 medium tomato (thinly sliced) - half a pound of fresh skinned salmon - 1 tablespoon olive oil - 1/4 teaspoon onion powder - salt and pepper (to taste) - 1 tablespoon butter - 1 tablespoon flour - 4 cloves of garlic (finely diced) - half a cup of white wine - 3/...
Read more

Partner

Image
  Whether it is with Customs or with cooking, one always needs support. To think that someone can do it ALL on their own is unrealistic. Let's look at a compliance department. Not a single individual will be available to respond to issues and emergencies 24/7/365. A team is built (whether it is a team of many or of two) to support each other. Vacations are taken. Family responsibilities need to be attended to. Personal health appointments are scheduled. All these "life issues" come up and require one to be away from their desk. Therefore, there is someone to back them up. Even if it is to defer and deflect until such time that the individual is back, there is usually someone to ensure that, at the very least, there is oversight of what is going on and what the best next steps should be. We can also look at back-up from the perspective of tools. Data is backed-up to ensure that if the primary location cannot be accessed, (see Blog post: https://customsandcooking.blogspot.c...
Read more

SOP

Image
I am sure that anyone who asked their grandmother for a recipe was told that you need to put in "a little bit of this and a little bit of that". Then, in order to determine what "this" and "that" was you had to stand over grandma to see exactly what she was doing and take meticulous notes in order to try and replicate the recipe in the future. My favorite example of this was my wife's grandmother's chicken soup. There was no way to get an exact recipe except by watching her add the specific ingredients and spices trying to determine how much to add and when in the process to do so. (The end result was a fabulous chicken soup.)  So when we talk about an SOP, a Standard Operating Procedure , "a little bit of this and a little bit of that" just won't do. For cooking, the SOP is a cookbook. Whether you are a novice or a seasoned cook, the cookbook is your guide. Even the greatest chefs use cookbooks. They may be the authors of those cook...
Read more