DC Velocity - November 2011

GSP renewal gives with one hand, takes away with the other

The passage of legislation that renews the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) through July 31, 2013, holds both good and bad news for U.S. importers.

In late October, President Obama signed legislation that retroactively reinstates the GSP back to Jan. 1, 2011. The program provides duty-free entry for products from 129 countries and territories that have been designated as developing economies. The program had expired on Dec. 31, 2010, and importers had been paying higher duties on some products in the interim. They can now apply for refunds of those duties.

The bill also includes a little-noticed
provision that will increase the merchan-
dise processing fee (MPF) for formal
entries from 0.21 percent to 0.3464 per-
cent through Nov. 30, 2015. The fee is
assessed on an ad valorem basis (based
on the value of the goods). It does not
apply on imports from countries that
have a free trade agreement (FTA) with
the United States. The MPF increase is
retroactive to Oct. 1, 2011. After
November 2015, the fee returns to its
original level of 0.21 percent.

TranSystems has designed a new distribution center layout for Sport Supply Group’s 185,000-square-foot facility in Farmers Branch, Texas. The new design has boosted the facility’s reserve storage, pick position, and throughput capacity. … Consulting company Capgemini and supply chain technology specialist GT Nexus have created a joint go-to-market business process outsourcing (BPO) initiative to enable supply chain orchestration. Under the deal, the two companies will collaborate on initiatives to provide customers with supply chain solutions enabled by the GT Nexus technology platform. … Puma has activated Manhattan Associates’ Supply Chain Process Platform. The Supply Chain Process Platform provides a sin- alliances

gle shared application architecture for all solutions in the Manhattan SCOPE solutions suite. … Kerry Logistics, a global logistics services provider, has secured a contract with Hugo Boss to manage the distribution of premium fashion and luxury goods in Greater China. … Longistics, a full-service provider of global logistics solutions, has launched Rare Bird Trading Co. to help U.S. and China business owners extend their marketplace to overseas retailers, particularly the growing Asian market. The two companies recently announced that they have signed Lexington, N.C.-based Childress Vineyards as an exhibitor at the Suzhou Industrial Park International Commodities Exhibition Center in China.