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October 2025, question 73

Valuation, Appraisement and Duty Assessment · Valuation

ASW Furnishings (ASW), a Los Angeles furniture company, has agreed to purchase 5000 chairs from Big House, a furniture manufacturer in Poland. ASW supplies Big House with the following inputs to use in the production of the chairs, free of charge: • Design specifications created by a Chicago-based furniture designer, purchased for a flat fee of $3200.00. • 2500 yards of cotton upholstery fabric, which Big House procured for $2.00 per yard in Poland, then shipped to ASW’s screen printer in South Africa. ASW paid their South African screen printer to add a design to the fabric for $1.00 per yard, before returning the fabric to Big House’s factory in Poland. Big House imports the chairs to the United States in five shipments of 1000 chairs each. ASW agrees to pay Big House $375,000.00 for the entire order of 5000 chairs, not including the value of the assists. If Big House chooses for the total assist value to be apportioned over the entire anticipated production of 5000 chairs, what is the dutiable value of one shipment of 1000 chairs?

  1. $75,500.00
  2. $76,000.00
  3. $76,140.00
  4. $77,140.00
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CBP gave credit for every answer.

CBP accepted every answer. The question tests assists: materials and processing the buyer supplies free are added to the price (152.103(b)(1)(iii)), design work counts as an assist only if undertaken elsewhere than in the United States (152.102(a)(1)(iv)), so a Chicago designer's work is not an assist, and an assist can be apportioned over the entire anticipated production (152.103(e)(1)), so one of the five shipments carries one fifth of it plus $75,000 of the price. The facts about who bought the fabric left the figure open to more than one reading.

the entire anticipated production 19 CFR 152.103(e)(1)
Engineering, development, artwork, design work, and plans and sketches that are undertaken elsewhere than in the United States 19 CFR 152.102(a)(1)(iv)

Search for: The apportionment of the value of assists to imported merchandise

Question and key from CBP's October 2025 exam and answer key. The walk-through is ours; quotes are from the pinned editions in the reference viewer (HTSUS 2026 Basic, 19 CFR 2025 edition).