Our services
We focus on providing the best solutions to your company to achieve customs efficiency and strategic customs planning opportunities. We specialise in the following areas:
- Strategic regional customs panning
- Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), compliance and planning
- Tariff Classification, Centre of Excellence for mass classification
- Customs valuation
- Customs compliance and process reviews
- Customs investigation and audit management
Case studies
Voluntary Disclosure Programme
WMS was approached by a US parent company that did not have sufficient local knowledge or resource to assess and carry out the actions required to deal with a major incidence of customs non-compliance that was uncovered during a routine internal audit of the Philippines subsidiary. WMS worked directly with the company’s legal team in the US but also was aware that the local subsidiary had to be pro-actively involved to ensure an acceptable result and to avoid future incidents of non-compliance.
How we helped
WMS assisted an entity in the Philippines that would like to voluntarily disclose erroneous declarations before the Bureau of Customs(BoC), and pay the applicable taxes and duties in order to possibly (depending on the lobbying strategy with the authority) avoid some penalties, surcharges, etc.
Benefit for the client
The benefit for this project was the reduction in the penalties and fines to be paid by the entity to the corresponding Customs authority.
Classification, Free Trade Agreement (FTA) application feasibility and Origin determination
WMS was engaged by a multinational manufacturer of electronic equipment to assess its supply chain covering the import of components into the Philippines, the assembly operations in the Philippines and subsequent export of finished goods. The manufacturer had concerns regarding non-compliance since it had very little control or oversight of its 3PLs handling import / export.
How we helped
WMS conducted a location feasibility study to determine if the goods being imported into the Philippines were classified correctly and if an FTA application (inbound and outbound) could be possible supported by the origin determination of the goods.
The study included:
- Saving opportunities through the usage of Free Trade Agreements – for both procurement and finished goods sales
- Incorrect HS Classification – finished products and parts: incorrect codes with tariff impact used in 7 major product classes leading to both overpayment of duties and compliance risk
- Effect on FTA usage
Benefit for the client
The benefits for this project were:
- correct use of Harmonized Tariff Codes ensuring compliance with the current legislation, and
- the correct and full application of available FTAs,reducing considerably the duties to be paid by the entity.
