{"id":14867,"date":"2021-03-22T16:37:18","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T16:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.openbusinesscouncil.org\/?p=14867"},"modified":"2021-03-30T16:40:10","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T16:40:10","slug":"this-is-how-section-321-de-minimis-could-affect-your-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.footballthink.com\/this-is-how-section-321-de-minimis-could-affect-your-business\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is How Section 321 De Minimis Could Affect Your Business"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Doing business is fraught with regulations. You can\u2019t possibly know them all. Even business attorneys have trouble keeping up. The issues become multiplied when dealing with international business. Everything gets a lot more complicated when things start moving across national borders. Distance is not the biggest complicating factor. Your country might have horrible trade relations with your nearest neighbor, but excellent relations with a nation on the other side of the globe. Even if you prefer to keep it local, that is not always possible in this small and highly connected world.<\/span><\/p>\n Making matters worse is politics. The political climate is always shifting. That can make for seismic shifts in regulatory red tape. One day, you are able to freely import and export your goods and raw materials to far-flung regions of the world at affordable prices. The next day, tariffs have soared, making trade impossible. In the most extreme circumstances, trade can be cut off with the stroke of a pen. You have to keep up with al the regulations of all the countries with which you trade, all the time. This is an untenable situation that keeps lawyers very happy.<\/span><\/p>\n If you plan to do business in Mexico, you are going to have to be familiar with the Duty Free regulation, otherwise known as<\/span> section 321<\/span><\/a> De Minimis. You might have been frightened off from sourcing your raw material from Mexico based on old information about tariffs and other fees. There was certainly a time when doing business with our neighbors to the South was a more expensive proposition.<\/span><\/p>\n Many decades ago, travelers had to pay a duty on items valued at $1. That was eventually raised to $5. It stayed that way for a very long time. Around the turn of the century, much had changed. The duty free limit was raised to $200. Citing the<\/span> De Minimis<\/span><\/a> code, NAPS offered the following explanation for the changes:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPer section 321, \u201cthe purpose of the amendment is to avoid administrative expense and inconvenience disproportionate to the amount of revenue realized.\u201d At its essence, duty-free\/De Minimis established the concept that it cost more time, labor, and administrative effort to regulate such small imports.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nDuty Free<\/b><\/h2>\n