metier
SOURCING & ORIGIN

Where things are made, and why it matters

Country of origin now drives landed cost as much as the factory price does, and the rules in major destination markets keep moving. This page explains how we work the question, in plain terms and without quoting numbers that will be stale by the time you read them.

01 · THE MAP
Offshore, nearshore, reshore
Offshore. China is where we buy today, and it remains the widest supplier base and lowest unit cost for most categories at small and mid-size quantities, provided quality and communication are managed on the ground. That management is our core business. On request we evaluate and qualify suppliers in other Asian origins, including Vietnam, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. We say "evaluate and qualify" deliberately: we don't claim a supplier base in a country until we've audited a factory there and run product through it.
Nearshore. Mexico and Latin America offer shorter transit and different duty treatment, with a thinner supplier base. Right for some products, and often fed by Asian components that we can structure and supply.
Reshore. Best where speed, regulation, or customer preference demands production in your home market. Domestic producers still buy components and tooling from Asia, and sourcing those well is where we fit.
02 · THE METHOD
How we handle duty

We don't publish rates. They'd be wrong within a quarter. What we commit to is the method, run before you commit to an order:

Classification review. We check your product's tariff classification and document how we arrived at it. Borrowing a code from a similar-looking product is a common shortcut and a bad habit.
Origin documentation. Papers that establish where the goods are actually from, prepared to survive scrutiny at entry.
Rates verified at date of entry. The duty treatment for your destination market is confirmed against the rules in force when your goods enter.
Origins compared. Where it matters, candidate origins priced side by side before you choose, on the same product and specification.
03 · THE RULE MOST PEOPLE GET WRONG
What actually changes origin

A product's country of origin is set by where it was substantially transformed: where it became a new and different article of commerce, with a new name, character, or use. Shipping Chinese components to a third country for simple assembly, repackaging, or relabeling does not automatically make the product originate there. Customs authorities look at what actually happened to the goods, and they look hard.

If a supplier or agent tells you origin can be changed with a stopover and a new label, walk away. The importer answers for a false origin claim, and the entry documents carry your company's name rather than the name of whoever suggested the shortcut.

04 · OUR POSITION
Where we stand on origin

Metier works origin legally. We will structure sourcing to obtain legitimate duty treatment, and we will not misdeclare, relabel, or route goods to disguise where they are from. If the honest answer is that your product's economics don't work from a given origin, we'll tell you, and we'll help you find one that does.

Tell us what you need to import.

Whether it's a product idea, a supplier problem, or a full supply chain to rebuild, start with an email. We reply within one business day.

SALES@METIERSCM.COM