According to two attorneys expert in USA customs law Xinyu Li and Braian Murphy from SSSPO, California Fashion Association held a forum about textile import on 11th, May. The senior officer from customs who is in charge of textile affairs Janet Laberda delivered a speech about law enforcement against textile. In her speech, she not only claimed the customs' attitude towards LDP/DDP, qualifications of customs clearance and declared value of garments but also hinted a big blow against frauds in textile and garment trades.
Her speech covered issues like statistics of American textile and garment import in recent years and enforcement of Free Trade Agreement.
According to statistics from American customs, the total value of import of textile and garments in 2009 fiscal year is 95.4 billion US dollars, which creates tariff of 10.2 billion US dollars. The tariff from import of textile and garments took a 46% proportion of the total tariff. As a result, American customs will strengthen its legal supervision against tax evasion.
She insisted at the forum that the customs would continue the supervision against the low declared value of China exported textile and garment. The qualification of customs clearance of American importers would be carefully checked. For the disputable LDP/DDP trades, she advised American companies to stop these purchasing ways. For those have to adopt them, those companies should be really cautious. A lot of details should be rechecked.
For those illegal clearances and prevailing low declared value, she implied shocking fraud crimes would be exposed. According to above attorneys, this statement usually means the end of investigation of smuggle and tax evasion. Furthermore, people involved might face criminal charges from American government. Chinese professionals from garment industry should keep a close eye on the influence of LDP/DPP brought by American customs' actions.
