USA: a step back on the "first sale rule"

In a recent letter addressed to the US transportation and importing community, the Commissioner of US Customs Alan Bersin announced that his administration is working on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that will be published in the next days on the Federal Register, that will formally withdraw the 2008 CBP proposal to abolish the first sale rule (read our article). Indeed, such mechanism has proved to be highly beneficial for US importers, allowing them to obtain substancial duty savings.

Accordingly, the first sale rule will definitively remain in place in the US.

We are now awaiting to see what will be the future of this rule in the European Union. At the moment, the last consolidated draft of the Implementing Provisions to the new Modernized Community Customs Code (not yet adopted), proposes its abilition, but the EU Commission has accepted to rediscuss this topic early this Fall, analizing it and evaluating its impact on the EU trading community with more attention.