Customs Commodity Analyst (Minneapolis)

Target•Minneapolis, MN

7d•$58,100 - $104,600

About The Position

Target is an iconic brand, a Fortune 50 company and one of America’s leading retailers. A role in Global Trade Services means that you will play a key role in supporting Target’s high degree of compliance with US Customs laws and regulations, maintaining the speed of our best-in-class import supply chain while ensuring that Target avoids fines and penalties for non-compliance with import regulations. As a Customs Commodity Analyst you will develop and provide processes, training, and guidance to internal and external partners on complex import regulations and Target import practices in order to make the best decisions for the company and provide product advice to partners aimed at minimizing risk and Customs duties. You are responsible for utilizing your technical expertise to make timely import item determinations based on a large breadth of information, sources, and requirements that other partners are dependent on in order to write POs, make entry into the US and utilize for purchasing decisions. Because of Target’s size and scale, decisions carry a lot of financial and reputational risk. This is achieved via taking responsibility for: Item Review, Classification, and Approval - Research and analyze new and existing import items to understand what is required in order to comply with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Partner Government Agencies (PGAs), trade remedies, and other specialized programs and the laws and regulations around them. To do this, you must stay current with the ever-changing regulatory environment by continually developing industry knowledge and understand when to bring on additional partners. This includes participation in in-house training, third party consultant training, Customs/trade seminars, staying up to date on recent rulings, international trade news, customs bulletins, partner government agency changes, and partnership with Legal and other groups. In addition to determining what is required for each item, you must independently assign a tariff classification and duty rate for the item and build a justifiable argument in support of the specific classification. In order to demonstrate reasonable care, many different resources are needed to be able to substantiate your interpretation and position. Examples of such are the General Rules of Interpretation (GRIs), Chapter and Section Notes, Explanatory Notes, Informed Compliance Publications, classification rulings, and decisions from the Court of International Trade (CIT) as well as gathering specific product information from suppliers and characteristics of the item. Often times, beyond your area of expertise, you may be pulled in by other peers for second opinions due to the highly technical and ambiguous nature of the role as well as having to make timely decisions to meet PO writing demands while maintaining a high degree of compliance. Erroneous decisions or failure to achieve results can have significant risk to the business from both a financial and reputational perspective. Business Management – Independent ownership of many different departments which includes being a technical subject matter expert for a large array of specific commodity types, being able to prioritize workload independently including consideration of PO writing timelines which directly impacts inventory to guests, knowing when to escalate issues and take on other partners (ex: to compliance, Analysts, Leader), and being able to balance and prioritize competing needs. Partnerships and Relationships - Establishing and maintaining internal and external relationships is critical in order to be able to educate, provide feedback, and proactively callout opportunities, impacts, and obligations for import regulations. Examples of this is participating in Planogram (POG) walks with Product Managers and Designers to proactively identify risks, trends, and provide upfront guidance. Supports Legal and Global Trade Compliance when gathering information and stating our position when responding to CBP inquiries and when there is an opportunity to obtain a binding ruling. Duty Engineering - Partner with Merchandising, Sourcing, Product Design and Development (PD&D) and others groups to identify and influence how product modifications, sourcing decisions, trade agreements and other duty engineering methods can provide savings to improve the bottom line, while maintaining Target’s high compliance rate. Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

Requirements

Proven ability of working well with ambiguity and building justifiable arguments for your decision making by analyzing multiple data points.
Strong communication and interpersonal skills with a high level of client focus – will interact with internal and external partners on a recurring basis when needing to educate, influence, and communicate perceived risks and potential issues with recommendations for risk mitigation.
Comfortable self-directing, self-motivating, operating independently in cross functional work and figuring out the optimal path forward where not defined.
Must be detail oriented, curious, take initiative to research and executing work to understand and mitigate a wide range of potential regulatory, government agency, financial exposure, and reputational issues.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of U.S. Customs and other government agencies.
US Customs Brokers License.
Prior trade and regulatory experience.
Prior Merchandising, Inventory Management, or Item Set up experience.

Responsibilities

Item Review, Classification, and Approval - Research and analyze new and existing import items to understand what is required in order to comply with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Partner Government Agencies (PGAs), trade remedies, and other specialized programs and the laws and regulations around them.
Business Management – Independent ownership of many different departments which includes being a technical subject matter expert for a large array of specific commodity types, being able to prioritize workload independently including consideration of PO writing timelines which directly impacts inventory to guests, knowing when to escalate issues and take on other partners (ex: to compliance, Analysts, Leader), and being able to balance and prioritize competing needs.
Partnerships and Relationships - Establishing and maintaining internal and external relationships is critical in order to be able to educate, provide feedback, and proactively callout opportunities, impacts, and obligations for import regulations.
Duty Engineering - Partner with Merchandising, Sourcing, Product Design and Development (PD&D) and others groups to identify and influence how product modifications, sourcing decisions, trade agreements and other duty engineering methods can provide savings to improve the bottom line, while maintaining Target’s high compliance rate.

Benefits

Target offers eligible team members and their dependents comprehensive health benefits and programs, which may include medical, vision, dental, life insurance and more, to help you and your family take care of your whole selves.
Other benefits for eligible team members include 401(k), employee discount, short term disability, long term disability, paid sick leave, paid national holidays, and paid vacation.

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