Textile importers run into common visa problem at end of year

Textile importers run into common visa problem at end of year    Freight forwarder Expeditors International is reminding textile importers to make sure year-end shipments are labeled with the visa control number from the correct year in which they were shipped.
   “Every year, especially when vessels are delayed in leaving the port of export, some importers run into problems which result in the fact that their shipments cannot be entered into the U.S. on arrival because the visas do not match the year of export,” David Rish, director, North America Customs, said in a customer notice.
   The confusion stems from the fact that visa control numbers used by governments to keep track of product quotas from each country must correspond with the date of exportation, defined as the date the vessel or carrier leaves the last port in the country of origin.
   If a delay in production or on the part of a steamship line postpones a shipment scheduled for December until January, the exporter must use the 2004 visa identification number and not assign the shipment to the 2003 allotment.
   Expeditors recommends that importers contact their suppliers to ensure that any shipments requiring textile visas that are scheduled to leave the country of origin near the end of 2003 have the proper visa, that suppliers are aware of the possible problems and the supplier has current information from their government on how to acquire a new visa, if needed.
   Special attention should be paid to shipments that are being transshipped through countries other than the country of origin, because the date of export must reflect the date the shipment left the country of origin, not the port of the intermediate country.