- •Contents
- •Unit I. Customs control
- •Text a. Customs control
- •I. Read the following article and give synonyms for the words and phrases in bold.
- •II. Translate the following phrases into English. Make up sentences with them describing customs control areas.
- •IV. Using the vocabulary complete the sentences giving extensive information.
- •Text b. Customs laboratories
- •I. Read the article and give English equivalents for the words and phrases in brackets.
- •Text c. Principles of customs control
- •I. Read the article and give Russian equivalents for the words and phrases in bold.
- •II. Using the vocabulary give the gist of Text b and Text c. Text d. Forms and order of customs control measures
- •I. Read the article and give Russian equivalents for the words and phrases in bold.
- •Verification of Documents and Information
- •Verbal Inquiry
- •Verification of Special Marking or Other Identification of Goods
- •Verification of Authenticity of Information Following Release of Goods and/or Means of transport for Free Circulation
- •II. Find 11 words from the text in the table and translate them.
- •III. Match the words with their definitions. Make up sentences with them.
- •IV. Define if the following statements are true or false.
- •I. Read the article and give Russian equivalents for the words and phrases in bold.
- •3. How pcc works
- •4. Eligible Processes:
- •Operation of the procedure
- •Text f. Regulations for the federal customs service
- •Read the article and compare the authorities of the fcs of Russia with those of Belarus.
- •Is responsible for:
- •Unit II. Customs tariffs
- •Text a. Tariffs and their types
- •I. Read the following article and give Russian equivalents for the words and phrases in bold.
- •II. Using the dictionary of synonyms find the synonyms for the following words.
- •III. Match the words in column a with the appropriate words in column b.
- •IV. Complete the following sentences using the required information and the vocabulary from the article above.
- •Read the article and translate and find synonyms for the words and phrases in bold.
- •II. Give the summary of the article. Text c. Tariff quotas
- •Read the article and explain the words and phrases in bold.
- •II. Using the vocabulary speak on tariff quotas. Find some additional information on them. Text d. Tariff regulations
- •I. Choose the words to complete the article. It may be necessary to change the form of the given words.
- •Translate the following words and phrases and give definitions to them.
- •Using the vocabulary give the summary of the article.
- •Text e. Tariff regulations of foreign trade in the republic of belarus
- •Read the article and be ready to discuss it.
- •Answer the following questions.
- •Read the article and translate the words and phrases in bold.
- •Industrial suspensions
- •Complete the sentences using the required information from the above article.
- •Text g. Tariff databases
- •I. Read the articles and render them in Russian.
- •Unit III. Customs duties
- •Text a. Customs duty
- •I. Read the article and give Russian equivalents for the words and phrases in bold.
- •Import vat
- •Import vat rate
- •Text b. Import duty
- •Text c. Duties
- •Read the article and give Russian equivalents for the words and phrases in bold.
- •Imported or used in specified circumstances include:
- •Import duty relief
- •Import reliefs on previously exported goods
- •II. Using the vocabulary give the gist of the article. Then render it in Russian. Text f. Types of duty relief
- •I. Choose the words to complete the article. It may be necessary to change the form of the given words.
- •Part I. Inward processing relief (ipr)
- •Part II. Outward processing regime
- •Part III. Temporary admission relief (ta)
- •Read the article and be ready to discuss it.
- •II. Give the Russian equivalents for the following phrases.
- •III. Explain the following words and expressions and find synonyms for them.
- •IV. Complete the following sentences using the required information from the article.
- •V. Using the vocabulary and the information from the article make up a story “a true story of an eternal debtor”. Text h. Duty-free exemption
- •Read the article and give its main ideas in Russian.
- •II. Find some information about the duty-free exemption in Belarus. Compare it with that of the usa. What could our customs systems borrow from the custom system of the usa and vice versa?
- •Unit IV. Export procedure and export finance
- •Text a. Export procedures
- •I. Read the article and find the synonyms for the words and phrases in bold.
- •II. In the article above find the English equivalents for the following words and phrases. Then make up sentences with them explaining export procedure.
- •III. Answer the following questions.
- •Text b. Export declarations
- •Read the article and find Russian equivalents for the words and phrases in bold.
- •With the vocabulary from the article give the gist of it. Text c. Export control laws
- •I. Read the article and translate the words in bold.
- •II. Fill in the missing words.
- •III. Using the vocabulary make up a detective story with a disastrous end.
- •IV. Complete the following sentences using the required information from the article.
- •Text d. Import, export and tariff eu regulations
- •Read the article and render it in Russian.
- •Text e. Export permit
- •I. Choose the words from the group below to complete the article. It may be necessary to change the form of the given words.
- •Read the article and be ready to discuss it.
- •Give the Russian equivalents for the following phrases.
- •Using the vocabulary give the gist of the article.
- •Make up a dialogue between a customs officer and a businessman discussing the export of goods, their identification and valuation.
- •Unit V. Import procedures and import finance
- •Text a. Guidelines on imports
- •I. Read the following article and give synonyms for the words and phrases in bold.
- •Import Requirements
- •How Customs Determines Value of Imported Goods
- •Transaction Value Method
- •Transaction Value of Identical Goods Method
- •Transaction Value of Similar Goods Method
- •Deductive Value of Imported Goods Method
- •Clearance Procedures
- •Import Procedures
- •1. Import Procedures
- •II. Translate the following phrases into Russian. Make up sentences with them describing import procedures and requirements.
- •Match the words with their definitions.
- •IV. Answer the questions.
- •Give the summary of the above article. Text b. Methods of payment in import
- •I. Read the article and give English equivalents for the words and phrases in brackets.
- •Text c. Trade, volume, early payment and cash discounts
- •I. Read the articles and render them in Russian.
- •II. What is a Customs Bond?
- •Read the article and be ready to discuss it.
- •Import through Sea
- •Translate the words and phrases into English.
- •III. Using the vocabulary and the information talk about import duties.
- •Read the article and be ready to discuss it.
- •Match the words in column a with their translation in column b.
- •III. Using the vocabulary complete the sentences giving extensive information.
- •IV. With your partner discuss what other risks can take place in import activities. Text f. Commercial cash entry processing system
- •Read the article and render it in Russian.
- •In groups prepare “Brain Ring” game. Appoint the host, participants; get ready with the questions on import in customs.
- •Unit VI. Types of customs payment
- •Text a. International trade payment
- •II. Find Russian equivalents for the following words. Using them give the essence of each type of international payment.
- •I. Read the text and translate all the marked words and phrases.
- •Standby Letter of Credit
- •II. Find 14 words from the text in the table and translate them.
- •III. Match the words in column a with the appropriate words in column b.
- •IV. Complete the following sentences using the required information and the vocabulary from the article above.
- •Text c. A letter of credit
- •I. Read the text and translate all the marked words and phrases.
- •II. Answer the questions:
- •Using the vocabulary give the main points of the article. Text d. Risks in lc situations
- •I. Read the article and give the summary of it.
- •II. So what are the major risks in lc payment? Find additional information on each type of risk and present it to the group mates.
- •II. Translate the word combinations. Choose 3 expressions that you like most of all and give their definitions to the group. The group will guess the combinations you are explaining.
- •II. Define if the statements are true or false.
- •IV. Using the vocabulary give the main points of the article. Text f. Customs card
- •I. Choose the words from the group below to complete the article. It may be necessary to change the form of the given words.
- •I. Read the article and write out all the economic terms.
- •Types of Customs Bonds
- •II. Give the gist of the article and then render it in Russian.
- •Unit VII. International trade contracts – incoterms
- •Text a. International commercial terms
- •Read the following article and give Russian equivalents for the words and phrases in bold.
- •Text b. Free alongside ship and free on board
- •I. Read the article and give English equivalents for the words and phrases in brackets.
- •I. Read the articles and give English equivalents for the words and phrases in brackets.
- •Carriage paid to and carriage and insurance paid to
- •Delivered at frontier, delivered ex-ship and delivered ex-quay
- •Delivered duty unpaid and delivered duty paid
- •II. Using the vocabulary complete the sentences giving extensive information.
- •III. Using the vocabulary and the information from the articles act out a dialogue between the buyer and the seller. Text d. Incoterms and vat
- •Choose the words to complete the article. It may be necessary to change the form of the given words.
- •Import vat
- •Text e. About incoterms
- •I. Read the article and be ready to discuss it.
- •Translate the following words and phrases and give definitions to them.
- •III. Give the summary of the article. Text f. Incoterms and trade
- •Read the article and render it in Russian.
- •Import documentation
- •Unit VIII. Customs union
- •Text a. Customs union: what is it?
- •Text b. The customs union among russia, belorussia and kazakhstan
- •Indirect taxation of foreign activity performed by countries of the Customs Union
- •II. Translate and then explain the meaning of the following words and phrases from the article above.
- •I. Read this scientific essay and find the synonyms for the words and phrases in bold.
- •Match the words in column a with the appropriate words in column b.
- •III. Make a list of positive and negative welfare effects of customs union creation as viewed by the author of the article. Which of them do you agree with?
- •IV. Render the article in Russian. Text d. Benefits of a customs union
- •I. Choose the words to complete the article. It may be necessary to change the form of the given words.
- •II. Using the vocabulary give the gist of the article above. What other benefits of a customs union can you think of? text e. Russia, belarus and kazakhstan
- •Read the following article and be ready to discuss it.
- •Translate the following words and phrases into Russian.
- •III. Complete the following sentences using the required information and the vocabulary from the article above.
- •Unit IX. Electronic customs
- •Text a. The present customs landscape in europe
- •I. Read the article and explain the words and phrases in bold.
- •International drivers towards Customs transformation
- •II. Give synonyms for the words in bold.
- •III. Match the words in column a with the appropriate words in column b.
- •IV. Use the collocations in the assignment above and make short but extensive slogans advertising e-Customs.
- •V. Are the following statements true or false? Provide the necessary information for them.
- •VI. Act out a dialogue between the ibm specialist and a Customs officer on the topic of e-Customs. Use the vocabulary and information from the article. Text b. Customs automation system
- •I. Read the text and translate all the marked words and phrases.
- •1. Key Application Areas
- •II. Match the synonyms.
- •III. Explain the meaning of the following terms.
- •IV. Complete the following sentences using the required information and the vocabulary from the article above.
- •Unit X. Customs brokerage
- •Text a. Customs brokerage
- •III. Match the English and Russian words and phrases. Then using them act out a short dialogue on customs clearance.
- •IV. Complete the following sentences using the required information from the article.
- •Text b. Customs broker
- •I. Choose the words from the group below to complete the article. It may be necessary to change the form of the given words.
- •How Customs Brokerage Makes Importing Easier
- •Unit XI. Customs of the 21st century
- •Text a.
- •I. Read the article and give Russian equivalents for the words and phrases in bold.
- •21St century customs: a new dynamic role
- •III. Using the vocabulary complete the sentences giving extensive information.
- •I. Read the following article and give synonyms for the words and phrases in bold.
- •Text c. United states: customs in the 21st century
- •II. Using the dictionary of synonyms find the synonyms for the following words.
- •III. Find 9 words from the text in the table and translate them.
- •IV. Define if the following statements are true or false.
- •Text d. A customs blueprint for the 21st century
- •I. Read the article and give English equivalents for the words and phrases in brackets.
- •1. Introduction
- •2.Questions and Answers :
- •II. Using the vocabulary make up a conversation between a wco officer and a businessman on a Customs blueprint for the 21st century.
- •For discussion
- •Unit I.
- •Import controls - prohibitions, restrictions and licences
- •Export controls
- •Vat on exports and other export taxes
- •Classification of goods
- •The importance of classifying your goods
- •Unit II. Taking On China
- •China Restarts Rare Earth Shipments to Japan
- •What Development Round?
- •Tricky Tariff Customs Tax Bills
- •Unit III. Duty Free Tax Exemptions on Returned Goods
- •7 Rules for Customs Duty Savings for Items on Return to Canada
- •Tariff Duty Refunds
- •How to Reduce Customs Tariff Duties and Taxes
- •Unit IV. Export Procedures
- •Export Boom Helps Farms, but Not American Factories
- •Unit V. What Determines a Car Shipping Rate?
- •Solar Panel Tariff May Further Strain u.S.-China Trade
- •The Price of Gold and the Gold Customs
- •Unit VI. Zambia: zra to launch e-Customs payment system
- •Payment of an annuity to a non-resident
- •Unit VII. Do the unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts form a new lex mercatoria?
- •Unit VIII. New customs declaration rules for Customs Union corporations in 2011
- •Let’s Stick Together: Pros and Cons of the Tripartite Customs Union in the cis
- •Customs union creates new rules, new problems
- •Zambia: comesa making progress towards Customs Union launch
- •Unit IX. An Airport Program That Makes Traveling (Gasp!) Easier
- •E.U., Kiev and Moscow Search for Friendly Ties
- •Russia and 2 Neighbors Form Economic Union
- •Unit X. The New Computerised Transit System (ncts)
- •Sap Introduces New Stand-Alone Application to Help Companies Rapidly Comply With European eCustoms Procedures
- •Unit X. Customs Broker
- •Translating articles
- •Таможня
- •Таможенная политика
- •Таможенно-тарифное регулирование
- •Таможенное декларирование
- •Таможенные тарифы
- •Таможня и экспорт
- •Доводы «за» национальный протекционизм
- •Таможенные платежи
- •Таможенные пошлины (I)
- •Таможенные пошлины (II)
- •Ставки таможенных пошлин
- •Виды таможенных пошлин
- •2. По способу взимания:
- •Влияние таможенных пошлин на торговлю
- •Импорт прижали
- •Союз, да не тот
- •Электронная таможня
- •Электронная таможня в беларуси
- •Концепция проекта "электронная таможня" на 2011-2015 гг. В беларуси
- •Преимущества электронного декларирования
- •Таможенный брокер
- •Российская таможня в условиях построения информационного общества
Solar Panel Tariff May Further Strain u.S.-China Trade
HONG KONG — Companies that import solar panels to the United States are facing up to $70 million in unexpected tariffs.
The bill comes at a time when the industry is already struggling and could hurt both foreign solar panel makers and foreign and American distributors.
It could also further strain trade relations between the United States and China.
The issue began with a short letter to United States customs officials last December from the small American subsidiary of a Spanish energy company. The subsidiary, GES USA, wanted to know what the tariff would be to import certain solar panels from China.
On Jan. 9, the customs agency wrote back that the panels had become too sophisticated to qualify for duty-free import. Instead — because the panels contain a basic electronic device for safety and energy efficiency — they would be treated as electric generators, subject to a duty of 2.5 percent.
Such low duties are standard on many imports, and are much less punishing than the punitive tariffs aimed at restricting the trade of a certain good, like the 35 percent tariff on Chinese tires announced three weeks ago.
But the duties come at a particularly difficult time for the global solar power industry. Many panel manufacturers are losing money because of fierce competition from ever-expanding production in China and a worldwide downturn that has driven down prices. Raising prices now to cover past tariffs will be hard because the market is glutted with panels; prices have fallen a fifth since early this year.
The decision is legally binding on most solar panels imported into the United States. But virtually no one in the industry became aware of it until the last few weeks, Meanwhile, unpaid duties piled up, along with penalties that are likely to double the cost.
The United States exported almost as much solar panel equipment as it imported in the first seven months of this year — $605 million in imports and $555 million in exports, according to Commerce Department data.
The Solar Energy Industries Association, a coalition of domestic and foreign companies whose board chairman is an executive from Suntech, China’s biggest solar panel maker, argues that American tariffs on solar panels could lead other countries to impose tariffs on American exports.
The customs decision is dividing the industry between importers and companies that produce solar equipment in the United States. And with China accounting for a rising share of American imports, the tariff could become a sticking point in bilateral trade relations already troubled by the dispute over tires, autos and chicken parts.
Some Chinese solar panel manufacturers are already planning to move final assembly of solar modules to plants in the United States, a step that could allow them to avoid the duty someday, said Rhone Resch, the chief executive and president of the industry association.
The duty generally applies to solar panels that provide power to a residential, commercial or industrial electrical system; small solar panels imported with built-in light bulbs are already counted as electric lights and are subject to a tariff of 3.9 percent.
Lawyers are critical of the industry for not spotting the problem sooner.
“It is somewhat unusual for an industry to take as long as eight months to become aware of a customs ruling that affects it,” said Mel Schwechter, a partner at Dewey & Leboeuf in Washington and a former president of the Customs and International Trade Bar Association.
Customs decisions, even for a single importer, are made public on the agency’s Web site and on commercial Web sites, said Mr. Schwechter, who is not advising any of the participants in the dispute.
Mr. Resch said the growing industry lacked the resources to constantly track tax and regulatory decisions.
Duties will be doubled if customs officials determine that companies have been negligent in not paying them earlier.
Importers might also be liable for duties on all solar panels brought into the United States in the five years before the ruling if customs officials decide that the companies were guilty of “material misstatement or omission” for failing to notice sooner that solar panels had evolved to the point that they no longer met duty-free rules.
The association plans to challenge the classification of the panels as generators in court, Mr. Resch said. But before starting what could be lengthy litigation, the safest strategy for each importer, according to trade lawyers, is to pay immediately the duties and accrued penalties for shipments received since January, and to start paying the duty going forward.
“We’re taking this very seriously — it has a large financial impact in the United States and it has global ramifications,” Mr. Resch said.
Top officials at Customs and Border Protection, the agency that succeeded the Customs Service, could overrule the technical specialists who determined that the sophisticated panels should be treated like electric generators. Such a move would extend duty-free treatment to the latest solar panels. But that would mainly benefit Chinese producers, whose share of the market has surged in the last two years.
It would also reduce the incentive for companies to manufacture panels in the United States — a politically touchy decision at a time when American cities have been vying for panel factories even as the industry is shifting production to China.
Importers, a mixture of foreign and American manufacturers and distributors, are liable for duties and penalties, not consumers who bought imported panels in recent years.
Imports account for almost half of the solar panels sold in the United States.
Customs issued its ruling on Jan. 9, less than two weeks before President Obama took office. The ruling said that a panel from Trina Solar of China was really a generator because it was equipped with a diode that allows electric current to pass around areas of the panel that are shaded. The diodes have become standard on solar panels, and are effectively required to meet American safety standards.
Javier Muniz, the chief executive of GES USA, said through a spokeswoman that GES solicited the customs opinion last winter for a project that did not end up being built. GES did not tell other companies about the ruling, he added.
Even Trina Solar, the Chinese panel maker, became aware of the decision only “in recent weeks,” a Trina spokesman said. Industry leaders have stayed very quiet about the customs decision in the last few weeks while holding emergency meetings to decide on a legal strategy.
Unlike many large overseas manufacturers, Trina still exports directly from China to independent distributors in the United States. Trina does not have a American subsidiary to import the panels and handle the customs paperwork.
“Trina Solar is currently classified as an exporter and is not liable for the duty arising from these regulations,” said Terry Wang, the company’s chief financial officer.
Suntech said that it was aware of the customs decision and was looking into it.
Mr. Resch estimated that the duty would cost the industry $70 million this year, and there would be more tariffs in the years to come.
That calculation assumes the industry will be found negligent for not paying the duty on panels imported since January and will be assessed the doubled duty. It assumes the industry will not be found liable for shipments in the preceding five years.