Venting on Bamboo Tariff Stuff

Blogs are great for people like me that get real raw about stuff and need the sweet ability to vent – and NOW. Therefore, I am venting.

Someone help me! Someone help me figure out how to get myself a red phone to Customs & Border Protection so that I can spoon feed them all the areas of the Tariff that are in dire need of clarity and a good old fashioned common sensical makeover! Someone tell me who to call to demand an informed compliance publication so that I don’t tear my hair out trying to classify something, do all the due diligence and STILL get my back-end handed to me whenever Customs happens to disagree with my results.

So, let me get this straight, Customs is going to demand the world from the U.S. importer, throw this big fatty book at them and say “figure it out” and even though the book itself reads like a real bad Choose Your Own Adventure story from the 80’s with twists turns and contradicting statments Joe Importer is going do their damndest but Customs will still come down on them if they should happen to get the classificaiton wrong anyhow?! I guess that is the way it is. Oh, I do my share of rulings but COME ON!! Should you really have to submit for rulings for EVERYTHING!?! The importer doesn’t want that. Customs surely doesn’t want that.

In case you are wondering why I am griping today…try classifying a solid wood bamboo vase. Chapter 44 explicitly excludes bamboo but the chapter itself provides for bamboo flooring. The note should change to exclude bamboo UNLESS it is flooring. Chapter 44 is a fine mess and needs work – especially since the green thing to do these days is make everything from sustainable materials of which the world is marketing bamboo as the salvation. Puhleeze.

Okay. I feel better now.