No-regrets planning for retailers regarding taxes, tariffs and trade

How are you preparing for a rapidly changing landscape today? Getting clear line of sight of your current state is critical for understanding the impacts of existing and potential provisions under the America First trade policy. With that foundation, you gain the confidence needed to manage risk and apply practical levers that can position you for profitable growth. Taking control of this moment is about much more than tariffs alone. Whether you’re thinking about risk mitigation and cost containment in the short term or profitable growth opportunities in the long term, the first step is assessing your current state so you can design practical and impactful levers for your company. They can then be deployed as needed for maximum impact in this fast-changing environment:

Supply chain traceability:

• Can you redesign your processes, procedures and technology to create the visibility needed for this rapidly evolving situation?

Supply chain resilience:

• Is there an opportunity to adapt suppliers and resources to gain the agility needed to manage geopolitical uncertainty?

Customs partnerships programs:

• Could CTPAT (Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) and CTPAT Trade Compliance offer supply chain and customs clearance to your enterprise?

Foreign trade zones:

• Have you explored trade benefits, including duty deferral, inverted tariff benefits, duty elimination on exports and reduced processing fees?

Valuation:

• Are you minimizing inventory and supply valuation subject to tariffs, such as excluding non-dutiable costs, alignment with transfer pricing and first sale for export rules, to accurately identify declared value?

Duty drawback:

• Have you assessed whether you can obtain duty refunds on the same or similar exported merchandise that was previously imported?

Origin planning:

• Have you considered every geography for manufacturing activities to capture all available federal benefits?