Bruce Leeds

first sale

What is the “First Sale” Rule and How Does it Affect Me?

By Bruce Leeds, Senior Counsel, Braumiller Law Group

The First Sale Rule applies in circumstances such as the example above. A US company places an order with a middleman in the US. The middleman in turn subcontracts to a foreign supplier. The supplier then ships the product either to the middleman or to the original US company that placed the order, meaning either could be the importer of record. The entered value could be the amount on the original purchase order or the price paid by the middleman to the foreign supplier.

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Xinjiang Exclusions

Challenges Ahead! – Requesting to be Excluded From the Xinjiang Exclusions

By Bruce Leeds, Senior Counsel, Braumiller Law Group

In April of this year U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) issued Headquarters Ruling H330077. The ruling was in response to a protest filed by an importer that had a shipment of wearing apparel excluded from entry under a Withhold Release Order (WRO) at the port of Newark, NJ. The wearing apparel was processed from cotton produced in India, made into yarn and fabric in China, and converted to wearing apparel in Cambodia. None of the parties to the transaction were located in the Xinjiang Region of China.

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Customs Regulations

Customs Brokers: Giving Credit to Accreditors

By Bruce Leeds, Senior Counsel, Braumiller Law Group

U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) published the Final Rule on continuing education for individual customs broker license holders in the Federal Register on June 23, 2023. This Final Rule made several changes to Part 111 of the Customs Regulations and imposed a continuing education requirement on individual license holders.
A good part of the background discussion in the Final Rule involved where to get the required educational hours and who is to provide them.

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Mergers and Acquisitions

Driving You MAD – Customs Issues in Mergers Acquisitions & Divestitures

By Bruce Leeds, Senior Counsel, Braumiller Law Group

When one company buys another there are typically two ways the purchased company will be treated: (1) It will be incorporated into the parent company and will no longer exist as a separate entity. (2) It will become a separately incorporated subsidiary of the parent company and retain its IRS number.

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Revisions and updates to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)

Hot (or at least warm) Off the Press: Updates & Revisions to the ITAR

By Bruce Leeds, Senior Counsel, Braumiller Law Group

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) is continuing its project to revise and update the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Some of the changes are editorial and some are substantive. If you are affected by the ITAR or think you might be, you will need to stay on top of the changes because some (or all) may affect you.

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The U.S. and China are in a trade war

Doing Business with China Continues to Get More Difficult for U.S. Companies

By: Bruce Leeds, Senior Counsel and Adrienne Braumiller, Partner & Founder

The U.S. and China are not only in a trade war but there is also an effort by the U.S. to (1) prevent development of supercomputers, semiconductors and related products and technologies, and (2) prevent use of forced labor – especially involving the Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region. U.S. companies planning to export to China are facing a new or revised set of restrictions that may make their business more challenging.

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Revisions and updates to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)

Hot (or at least warm) Off the Press: Updates & Revisions to the ITAR

By Bruce Leeds, Senior Counsel, Braumiller Law Group

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) is continuing its project to revise and update the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Some of the changes are editorial and some are substantive. If you are affected by the ITAR or think you might be, you will need to stay on top of the changes because some (or all) may affect you.

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Customs Broker Regulations

New Rules for Customs Brokers – Bringing Your Brokerage into Compliance with the Modernized Part 111

By: Adrienne Braumiller Founding Partner and Bruce Leeds, Senior Counsel

After several years of review by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), the Customs Broker community, and the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Council, CBP unveiled the new Customs Broker Regulations under 19 C.F.R. Part 111. On October 18, 2022, CBP published the final rules, Modernization of the Customs Broker Regulations, 87 FR 63267, and Elimination of Customs Broker District Permit Fee, 87 FR 63262, which go into effect on Monday, December 19, 2022.

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Open General Licenses

DDTC is Open to Open General Licenses

By: Bruce Leeds, Senior Counsel, Braumiller Law Group

Some may be familiar with Open General Licenses (OGLs) used in the United Kingdom and some other countries. They allow export of dual-use, strategic and other controlled articles to specific destinations under certain conditions.

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Continuing the Proposal for Customs Broker Continuing Education

By: Bruce Leeds, Senior of Counsel

On Oct. 28, 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on continuing education for individually licensed customs brokers. After receiving comments and feedback from the trade, CBP published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on this proposal on Sept. 10, 2021.

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itar export exemptions

The ITAR Australia and UK Exemptions – Better Read the Regulations Carefully

By: Bruce Leeds, Senior Counsel to Braumiller Law Group and George Alfonso, Of Counsel to Braumiller Law Group and President of Reigncore Lobbying

On behalf of our example, we’d like to introduce you to “Joe Compliance.” Imagine Joe Compliance is going through the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and notices license exemptions for Australia and the UK in Part 126.16 126.17.

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Which Way with Huawei?

By: Bruce Leeds, Senior Counsel, Braumiller Law Group The Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS) of the Department of Commerce announced that it was adding

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