── ── Industry
Customs — Duty Optimization (Opportunity Cost)
The parent opportunity-cost measures the value of the best foregone alternative. Every duty dollar paid when a lawful program would have avoided/deferred it is a foregone saving. This surfaces those foregone alternatives and sizes them against setup cost.
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How it works
Enumerate lawful alternatives and their net value vs status quo: - Duty drawback: refund on duties for re-exported/destroyed goods (up to 99%). - Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ): defer/reduce/eliminate duty; inverted-tariff benefit. - First-sale valuation: dutiable value = earlier bona fide sale price in multi-tier transactions. - FTA/preference (see USMCA variant), bonded warehouse (deferral). - Weigh each program's admin/setup cost; opportunity cost = savings foregone by not adopting the best-fit one.
When to use it
- an importer has recurring, material duty spend
- evaluating FTZ, duty drawback, first-sale valuation, bonded warehouse, or FTA use
- 'are we leaving duty savings on the table?'
When not to use it
de minimis / trivial duty where program cost exceeds benefit.
Worked example
Customs — Duty Optimization (Opportunity Cost)
The parent opportunity-cost measures the value of the best foregone alternative. Every duty dollar paid when a lawful program would have avoided/deferred it is a foregone saving. This surfaces those foregone alternatives and sizes them against setup cost.
Install this skill (free, MIT)
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Related mental models
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