Advanced Trade Finance & Special Customs Procedures
Outward Processing
Also known as: Outward Processing Relief
Outward processing is the mirror image of inward processing: it lets a company temporarily export goods for manufacturing, repair, or further processing abroad and then re-import the resulting products with duty charged only on the value added overseas, rather than on the full value of the returned goods. The regime supports global manufacturing arrangements in which part of the production takes place in another country, avoiding duty on the domestic-origin materials that were sent out and came back. Like its inward counterpart, it requires authorization and documentation to establish the identity and value of the goods across the border movements.
Send goods abroad for repair or alteration and pay duty only on the value of the work when they return. The limit is sharper than people expect: an operation that produces a new or commercially different article is not an alteration, and the goods come back dutiable in full, on full value. Routinely missed, and entirely dependent on documenting what left.
Where it matters for compliance
- Relief depends on establishing the identity and value of the goods at export.
- Register the export before the goods leave; reconstructing it afterwards rarely succeeds.
Related terms
Reviewed by a licensed customs broker. Definitions are general information, not legal or customs advice for a particular shipment. Duty rates, tariff programs and agency requirements change frequently.