Imports of merchandise sets, cases or assortments can be imported with certain facilities established in the Agreement between Mexico, United States and Canada (USMCA).

According to the Ministry of Economy, this was incorporated into the new treaty because there is an increasing trend of imports with merchandise presentations in the form of games, cases or assortments.

Such presentations have become an increasingly widely used marketing strategy and, therefore, new provisions have been incorporated into the T-MEC to ensure origin compliance for imports into North America.

The USMCA provides that each item that makes up the set or assortment must be original. However, it does provide certain flexibilities.

The value of that item must not exceed 10% of the value of that set, assorted box, while the value of all non-originating merchandise, in each case, must not exceed 10% of the total value of the set, box or assortment.

Imports

Except as provided in Annex 4-B (Product Specific Rules of Origin), each Party shall provide that for a game or assortment classified as a result of the application of Rule 3 of the General Rules for the Interpretation of the Harmonized System, the game or assortment is originating only if each merchandise in the set or assortment is originating and both the set or assortment and the merchandise comply with the other applicable requirements of this Chapter.

However, for a game or assortment classified as a result of the application of rule 3 of the General Rules for the Interpretation of the Harmonized System, the game or assortment will be originating if the value of all non-originating goods in the game or assortment does not exceeds 10% of the value of the set or assortment.

The value of the non-originating goods in the set or assortment and the value of the set or assortment will be calculated in the same way as the value of the non-originating materials and the value of the merchandise.

For merchandise from 50 to 63, the provisions of articles 6.1.4 and 6.1.5 (Rules of Origin and Related Matters) must be applied, that is, General Rule 3 does not apply to it, if not mentioned in article 4.17, paragraph 1, of this Treaty.