International Trade, Customs, and Tariff Compliance

Trade risk often begins before anyone thinks to call it a trade issue.

A company changes suppliers, updates a product description, relies on a broker’s old instructions, or negotiates a purchase order without addressing new duties. Those decisions can feel routine at the time. The problem usually appears later, when a shipment is delayed, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) asks questions, duties increase, or a buyer asks the company to support a prior classification, origin, or duty position.

Ward and Smith helps companies spot trade issues early, understand the cost and compliance risk, and decide what to do next. When CBP, a customer, a supplier, or a buyer is already asking questions, we help clients respond with a clear path, a supportable record, and a practical understanding of how the issue may affect the business beyond the shipment or entry.

The right response also needs to account for what the company has promised, documented, and disclosed. The company may need to manage supplier obligations, customer communications, deal disclosures, product records, or litigation strategy at the same time. Ward and Smith helps clients connect those pieces and respond with a plan that fits the business as a whole. 

Import Compliance and Customs Risk

Customs brokers prepare entries, but importers remain responsible for the information CBP uses to release goods and assess duties. The company needs support for the classification, value, origin, and records behind each entry. When that support is missing or inconsistent, the problem may show up as unnecessary duty cost, additional duty exposure, shipment delay, lost refund opportunity, or enforcement risk.

Ward and Smith helps clients review import practices, identify gaps, and respond when questions arise. Our work includes:

• HTSUS classification and reclassification
• Country-of-origin determinations
• Marking and labeling requirements
• Customs valuation, assists, royalties, and related-party transactions
• First-sale valuation and other lawful duty-planning strategies
• Section 301, Section 232, reciprocal tariffs, and other country- or product-specific tariff measures
• Free trade agreements and preference programs
• Duty drawback, post-summary corrections, protests, and refund opportunities
• Broker instructions and import compliance procedures
• Binding ruling requests and classification support
• CBP Requests for Information, Notices of Action, detentions, seizures, penalties, audits, and prior disclosures

The work often begins with a practical question: Are we paying too much? Did we underpay? Can we change suppliers? How should we respond to CBP? We help clients answer those questions with a path that fits the business and a position that can be supported if questioned later.

HTSUS Classification and Duty Strategy

The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States determines how imported products are classified and what duties, additional tariffs, and entry requirements may apply. With more than 10,000 eight-digit subheadings and periodic amendments to the tariff schedule, the right classification is rarely as simple as searching for the product name.

The right code may depend on facts that do not appear in the product name or commercial invoice. Material composition may drive the answer for one product, while principal use or manufacturing process may control another. Getting the classification wrong can change the duty rate and bring additional tariff or AD/CVD exposure into play.

For companies with meaningful import volumes, tariff classification has a direct effect on landed cost. The issue often gets revisited when the cost no longer looks right—because a tariff changed, a supplier changed, or the same code has been carried forward for years. A careful review can show whether the company paid too much, whether refund rights should be preserved, and how broker instructions should be tightened going forward.

Ward and Smith reviews existing HTSUS classifications with the business objective in mind. We evaluate the product information, identify supportable reclassification, duty-reduction, and refund opportunities, and prepare binding ruling requests and classification support for submission to CBP.

When tariff measures change, we also help clients evaluate whether exclusion requests, refund opportunities, protests, sourcing changes, or contract adjustments may reduce the impact within the bounds of applicable law.

Country of Origin and Supply Chain Decisions

For U.S. customs and trade purposes, country of origin identifies the country used to determine duties, marking, and origin certifications. That answer may be straightforward for a product made entirely in one country. It becomes more complicated when materials, components, or processing cross borders before the finished product enters the United States. In those situations, the analysis often turns on what production actually occurred and whether those steps are enough to establish or change origin.

Origin questions often arise when a company is already under pressure. A customer may be asking for a certification, CBP may be questioning an entry, or a buyer may be reviewing the issue in diligence. Ward and Smith helps clients test the claimed origin against the production record, identify the documentation needed to support it, and make supply-chain decisions with both legal risk and business cost in view. We also help clients evaluate whether goods qualify for USMCA or other duty-preference programs and whether the company has the records needed to support the claim.

CBP Inquiries, Protests, and Customs Litigation

A question from CBP can hold up a shipment, increase duties, or require the company to justify what was submitted at entry. The answer given today can become the record CBP relies on later, affecting past entries, future shipments, potential refunds, penalty exposure, or litigation.

Ward and Smith helps clients respond to CBP inquiries, enforcement actions, and adverse determinations. Depending on the posture, that may mean answering a Request for Information, addressing a Notice of Action, preparing a prior disclosure, filing a protest, preserving a refund claim, or litigating in the U.S. Court of International Trade when judicial review is available.

The goal is to address the immediate problem without giving up arguments, remedies, or records that the company may need later. When prior entries are involved, we help clients evaluate timing, preserve available remedies, and decide whether the issue should be corrected, protested, disclosed, or challenged through administrative or judicial review.

Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Matters

Antidumping and countervailing duty (“AD/CVD”) issues can turn a sourcing or purchasing decision into a long-term duty problem. For importers and foreign producers, the immediate concern is often whether the product is covered and what rate will apply. For U.S. producers, the question may be whether imports sold at less than fair value or benefiting from countervailable subsidies justify seeking trade-remedy relief.

These matters are record-driven. The record built before the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission can determine whether goods are covered, what cash deposit rate applies, what final duty liability may look like, and whether the result can be challenged or defended later.

AD/CVD exposure is also rarely confined to the initial investigation. Orders are reviewed every five years and can continue through additional five-year periods. Annual administrative reviews can change what importers owe on past entries and what they must deposit on future shipments. If Commerce concludes that a response is incomplete, unsupported, or late, it may rely on adverse facts available, which can result in substantially higher duty rates

Ward and Smith advises clients on AD/CVD matters, including investigations, administrative reviews, scope and circumvention questions, importer-risk assessments, questionnaire responses, factual submissions, and judicial review before the U.S. Court of International Trade. We help clients understand whether the product may be covered, what deadlines matter, and what record the company must build. From there, we connect the trade strategy to the commercial realities of pricing, purchasing, inventory, supplier relationships, and customer contracts.

Export Controls and Sanctions

For companies selling across borders, export controls and sanctions can determine whether a transaction can move forward. The answer may depend on who is involved, where the item is going, what technology or services are being provided, and how the transaction will be used.

Ward and Smith helps clients decide whether a proposed transaction can proceed and what steps need to happen first. Before goods, software, technology, services, or payments move across borders, that may mean confirming whether restricted-party screening is required, whether a license is needed, whether OFAC or destination controls apply, whether contract terms should change, or whether the issue should be escalated.

These questions often arise on commercial timelines, not legal timelines. Sales may be ready to close, engineering may need to share technical information overseas, or finance may need to resolve a flagged payment. Ward and Smith helps clients build practical procedures so business teams know when to proceed, when to pause, what information to collect, and when legal review is required.

Product Regulatory Issues at Import

When regulated products enter the United States, the practical question is whether the company can support what it says about the product. A shipment may be delayed or questioned if the certificate, label, test record, product claim, or agency filing does not match the goods being imported. For covered CPSC-regulated consumer products, eFiling also makes certificate data part of the import process.

For regulated goods, the import file should match the product actually being shipped. Ward and Smith helps clients identify the requirements that apply, close gaps in the support record, and respond when CBP or a partner agency asks for proof. The goal is to address documentation problems before they delay shipments, disrupt customer commitments, or become enforcement problems.

Deals, Contracts, and Trade Disputes

Trade risk often surfaces after a deal, contract, or dispute is already in motion. A tariff increase can change the economics of a supply agreement. An unsupported origin certification can become an indemnity issue. An unclear purchase order can leave the parties fighting over who must absorb new duties.

When ownership, financing, or control of a business is changing, trade issues can affect value and risk allocation. Ward and Smith helps clients review the company’s trade practices with the deal in mind and translate the findings into practical advice about what should be disclosed, negotiated, covered by indemnity, or fixed before or after closing.

Contracts are often the place to allocate trade risk before it becomes a dispute. Ward and Smith helps companies draft and negotiate language that addresses duty responsibility, importer-of-record obligations, Incoterms, supplier certifications, documentation rights, sourcing changes, and related compliance risk.

And, when a dispute does arise, the trade record becomes part of the claim or defense. We help clients evaluate what was promised, who bore the risk, what the documents show, what remedies remain available, and how the trade issue affects recovery, defense, settlement, or litigation strategy.

Trade Compliance Programs

A good trade compliance program should match how the company actually operates. It should tell employees what to check, when to pause, and when to escalate.

Ward and Smith starts by learning how products, documents, and approvals move through the company. We look at where trade decisions are made, where supporting records are maintained, and how unusual issues are escalated. Then we help build practical, risk-based procedures for the areas that matter most.

For one company, the problem may be old tariff codes that keep being used after products or suppliers change. For another, it may be weak origin support, inconsistent broker instructions, or uncertainty about who reviews export-control and sanctions questions. We also help update existing programs when the company changes what it sells, where it sources, or how it moves products.

A useful program answers practical questions in real time. Who owns the tariff classification? What records support the origin claim? When should a supplier change trigger review? What should the broker be told? Who decides whether an export-control or sanctions issue requires legal review?

Ward and Smith helps clients turn those answers into procedures, training, internal reviews, and escalation paths that fit the company’s operations. A practical program helps problems surface earlier, supports better responses to government inquiries, and gives the company a stronger record if a compliance decision is questioned later.

Clients We Serve

Ward and Smith advises businesses across industries and supply-chain roles, including:

• Manufacturers importing components, equipment, or raw materials for U.S. production
• Importers and exporters of consumer and industrial goods
• Distributors, wholesalers, retailers, and e-commerce companies
• U.S. producers evaluating trade-remedy options
• Foreign producers and U.S. affiliates responding to trade proceedings
• Companies managing multi-country supply chains
• Consumer product, apparel, textile, footwear, chemical, cosmetic, technology, equipment, food, beverage, agribusiness, and life sciences companies
• Buyers, sellers, and investors evaluating trade compliance risk in transactions

Why Ward and Smith

Companies rarely need trade advice in isolation. The same facts that determine a tariff classification may affect pricing, broker instructions, customer contracts, diligence, and litigation strategy. Ward and Smith helps clients address the trade issue without losing sight of the business setting in which it arose.

For a manufacturer, that may mean aligning broker instructions with purchasing and sales decisions. For a buyer in a deal, it may mean turning trade diligence into disclosures, indemnities, or post-closing fixes. For a company responding to CBP, Commerce, or a partner agency, it may mean protecting the record while also managing customer, supplier, and operational consequences.

Ward and Smith is a full-service business law firm with offices in North Carolina and South Carolina. Our international trade work can be coordinated with attorneys in litigation, corporate, regulatory, intellectual property, tax, employment, real estate, and other disciplines when the matter requires it. Clients get practical trade guidance backed by the broader legal resources needed to act on it.