What are tariffs and why are they important to U.S. citizens?

September 28, 2018

Tariffs are key components of trade, especially international trade.  Most American consumers’ merchandise, especially fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) may be purchased from other countries to use in our households and workplaces.    These consumer goods for American citizens must follow the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States for imports from other countries to America.  These tariff schedules are monitored by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Imports and exports often impact the economic balance to a country’s revenues, operating expenses, and fiscal policies.

Image courtesy of https://usitc.gov/.

The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) is the primary resource for determining applicable tariff rates and statistical categories for all merchandise imported into the United States. It can also be used in place of Schedule B for classifying goods exported from the United States to foreign countries.

The U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) classifies a good based on its name, use, and/or the material used in its construction and assigns it a ten-digit number. There are over 17,000 unique ten-digit HTS classification code numbers.

The Harmonized Tariff Schedule is based on the International Harmonized Commodity Coding and Classification System established by the World Customs Organization (WCO). Virtually all countries base their tariff schedules on the WCO’s Harmonized System.

The Harmonized Tariff Schedules of the United States are available as a print subscription product or CD-ROM format.

Custom Brokers will need to be familiar with the nomenclature found within these tariff schedules for the custom brokers’ licensure exam.  Economists, political scientists, small, medium-sized, and large businesses’ senior management executives will want to be familiar with these schedules to identify growth markets and work with their trade compliance teams to ensure that their organization is properly classifying their merchandise.

The GPO Online Bookstore – Easy Access to Federal Publications

HOW DO I OBTAIN THIS RESOURCE?

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at https://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Shop our Retail Store: Buy a copy of any print editions from this collection at GPO’s retail bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20401, open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Federal holidays, Call (202) 512-0132 for information or to arrange in-store pick-up.

Order by Phone: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

Find more than a million official Federal Government publications from all three branches at www.govinfo.gov.

About the author:  This week’s blog contributor is Maureen Whelan, Senior Marketing Team Leader for GPO’s Publications and Information Sales program office in Washington, DC. Maureen oversees print and digital content dissemination strategy and manages third party free and paid content distribution through platforms and vendors, such as Apple iBookstore, Barnesandnoble.com, Google Play eBookstore, Ebscohost databases, Overdrive, ProQuest, and more.

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Posted by Trudy Hawkins

“Maximize Your Dollars During Money Smart Week” Part 4: U.S. Federal Government Finances

April 26, 2018

How is the Federal Government doing with its debt and finances?

This blog post is the last in our “Maximize Your Dollars During Money Smart Week” series and highlights a few new books about Federal finances including financial debt, exporting & international trade, and the U.S. economy.

Here are a few new books to check out by the U.S. Federal Government:

Financial Report of the United States FY 2017  This report is a thorough overview of the federal government’s current financial position and future fiscal projections. Coverage includes current trends in revenues, costs, deficit and debt. It also highlights the government’s long-term fiscal challenge of funding the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Each section includes a summary of actions along with tabular charts to represent the data. The summary sections also include earned revenues, taxes, social security, Medicare, long-term fiscal projections, America’s debt and more. Policymakers, budget analysts, governmental personnel, economists, financial analysts, America’s businesses, including Small Business sector, U.S. economic trade partners, and American citizens interested in the financial state and growth of our country, may be interested in this resource. Students and professors studying the federal budget, U.S. economy, and financial projection statistics may also have a keen interest in this material for research. Public, special and academic libraries may also want a copy of this resource for their economic and government collections.

Economic Indicators, monthly periodical subscription, provides economic information on gross domestic product, income, employment, prices, wages, production, business activity, credit, purchasing power, security markets and more.

Mineral Commodity Summaries 2018 may serve as a wonderful reference to you for understanding trends and issues for each mineral commodity. You will find which commodity has a Government stockpile with detailed information concerning the stockpile status within a two-page synopsis. Additionally, tabular presentations on domestic industry structure, Government programs, tariffs, 5-year salient statistics and world production and resources can also be found in this updated volume. The Appendices included provide relevant information that may assist you with understanding the topics that are discussed across America’s news medium. This publication benefits American citizens, economists, investment traders, exporters, customs brokers, and individuals who may want to know more about mineral commodities and their impact on international trade. High school sophomores and above taking economic classes that cover international trade, exporting and tariffs may find this annual reference helpful for research papers and essays relating to commodities, tariffs, and international trade.

Additional books about Exporting & Foreign Trade

More resources about Budget & the Economy

Part 1 of this Money Smart series can be found here.

Part 2 of this blog post series can be found here.

Part 3 of this blog post series can be found here.

The GPO Online Bookstore – Easy Access to Federal Publications

HOW DO I OBTAIN THESE RESOURCES?

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at https://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Shop our Retail Store: Buy a copy of any print editions from this collection at GPO’s retail bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20401, open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Federal holidays, Call (202) 512-0132 for information or to arrange in-store pick-up.

Order by Phone: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

About the author: This week’s blog contributor is Maureen Whelan, Senior Marketing Team Leader for GPO’s Publication and Information Sales program office in Washington, DC. Maureen oversees print and digital content dissemination strategy and manages third party free and paid content distribution through platforms and vendors, such as Apple iBookstore, Barnesandnoble.com, Google Play eBookstore, Ebscohost databases, Overdrive, and ProQuest.

Leave a Comment » | finances, Office of Management and Budget, U.S. Economy | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Trudy Hawkins