TAA vs BAA: Which One Applies to Your Cisco Order?

The Buy American Act and the Trade Agreements Act are different tests, and usually only one governs a given Cisco order. The Buy American Act (BAA) is a domestic-content test backed by a price preference for products manufactured in the United States. The Trade Agreements Act (TAA) is a country-of-origin test. It waives Buy American for products from designated countries and restricts purchases to those products. It kicks in once a procurement reaches the WTO GPA threshold, currently $174,000 for supplies, or when the order sits under a contract that carries the TAA clause, such as a GSA Schedule.

The practical rule: below $174,000 on an open-market buy, BAA and your agency's own policy decide. At or above it, or on any GSA Schedule order, TAA decides, and for Cisco that usually means asking for the ++ part number.

TAA vs BAA at a glance

What the Trade Agreements Act requires

The Trade Agreements Act of 1979 sits at 19 U.S.C. chapter 13. Section 2511 lets the President waive discriminatory purchasing rules, including Buy American, for eligible products of designated countries; section 2512 lets the government prohibit procurement from countries that are not designated. FAR 25.402(a)(1) restates that waiver authority for the FAR.

Designated countries fall into four buckets under FAR 25.003: WTO GPA, Free Trade Agreement, least developed, and Caribbean Basin countries. Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, and Canada are in; China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and India are out. The full Yes/No table is in our TAA compliant countries list.

On a covered contract the contractor signs the FAR 52.225-6 Trade Agreements Certificate. It states that each end product is U.S.-made or a designated country end product, with exceptions listed by line item. FAR 52.225-5 then obligates delivery of only those products. For the full mechanics, start with what TAA compliant means.

What does substantially transformed mean?

TAA has no domestic-content percentage. FAR 25.003 defines a U.S.-made end product as an article "mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States or substantially transformed in the United States into a new and different article." For a designated country the test is the same: transformed there "into a new and different article of commerce with a name, character, or use distinct from that of the article or articles from which it was transformed."

A public Cisco example: in CBP final determination HQ H282390 (January 30, 2018), Cisco asked Customs to rule on an Ethernet switch. Its circuit board assembly, including the ASIC, CPU, memory, and flash, was made in China. Final assembly, operating system load, configuration, and testing happened in Mexico. CBP held the switch "will be considered a product of Mexico for purposes of U.S. Government procurement." That is how a switch with Chinese components can be TAA compliant, and why the answer is per part number, not per brand.

What the Buy American Act requires

The Buy American Act is about domestic manufacturing, not trade partners. For a manufactured article to count as a domestic end product, FAR 25.101(a) sets a two-part test: the article must be manufactured in the United States, and the cost of its domestic components must exceed a set percentage of the cost of all components.

What is the Buy American domestic content percentage in 2026?

FAR 25.101 states the base as more than 60 percent, rising on a schedule: 65 percent for items delivered in calendar years 2024 through 2028, and 75 percent for items delivered starting in 2029. For a 2026 delivery that is 65 percent; the 55 percent figure older articles quote is gone. Iron and steel end products use a different test: foreign iron and steel must be less than 5 percent of the cost of all components.

For commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) items, the domestic-content percentage test is waived; the iron and steel test still applies to COTS items other than fasteners. Networking hardware is normally bought as COTS, so under BAA the question mostly collapses to where the unit was manufactured.

Does the Buy American Act ban foreign products?

No. BAA is a price preference, not a prohibition. Under FAR 25.106 the contracting officer adds 20 percent to a foreign offer when the competing domestic offer is from a large business, and 30 percent when it is from a small business. The "12 percent penalty" in older posts is not the current figure, and FAR 25.106 says these procedures "will no longer apply as of January 1, 2030."

When does BAA apply instead of TAA?

FAR 25.403(c)(1) is the rule. In acquisitions covered by the WTO GPA, agencies acquire only U.S.-made or designated country end products, unless compliant offers are not received or are insufficient. Then it draws the line:

“This purchase restriction does not apply below the WTO GPA threshold for supplies and services, even if the acquisition is covered by an FTA.”

Source: FAR 25.403(c)(1)

The WTO GPA threshold for supply contracts is $174,000, per FAR 25.402(b) Table 1, effective March 13, 2026. The FAR notes that most of these thresholds are revised approximately every two years. Older figures still circulate on other sites; none is current. Three situations decide which rule you are under:

• Open-market buy below $174,000. The TAA purchase restriction does not apply. FAR subpart 25.1 governs, along with your agency's own policy, which can still require TAA compliant products. A micro-purchase under $15,000 on a purchase card requires no provisions or clauses (FAR 13.201(d)), so a cardholder does not collect a Trade Agreements Certificate. Our purchase card guide covers that path.
• Any order under a GSA Schedule. GSA states that products and services awarded under MAS contracts are subject to the TAA, with the exceptions at FAR 25.401(a). The clause lives in the contract, not the order, so a $4,000 Schedule order is still TAA-covered. (Uniqcli does not hold a GSA Schedule; our MAS application is in progress.)
• DoD purchases. DoD uses DFARS 252.225-7021, Trade Agreements (Basic), FEB 2024, which requires only U.S.-made, qualifying country, or designated country end products. "Qualifying country" is a DoD-only list from reciprocal defense procurement agreements. Turkey is on it but is not TAA designated, so a part that is fine for DoD can fail a civilian agency's TAA clause. See our defense procurement page.

Section 889 is a separate rule with no dollar floor, so it applies even to micro-purchases; see TAA vs NDAA Section 889.

Is TAA compliance the same as Made in USA?

No. "Made in USA" is a Federal Trade Commission advertising and labeling standard under 16 C.F.R. Part 323. An unqualified claim requires that "all or virtually all" of the product be made in the United States, including final assembly and all significant processing. It plays no role in federal procurement eligibility.

BAA is a percentage test (65 percent domestic component cost for 2024 through 2028 deliveries, with the COTS waiver). TAA is a country plus substantial transformation test with no percentage; a switch wholly built in Japan or Mexico is as TAA compliant as one built in Ohio. So a Made in USA product is necessarily TAA compliant. A TAA compliant product is usually not Made in USA. A BAA domestic end product can still fall short of "all or virtually all."

What a Cisco buyer should actually do

This is the checklist we run with federal, DoD, and SLED customers; see our government procurement page.

• Work out which rule governs before you build the BOM. Open market under $174,000: BAA plus agency policy. At or above $174,000, or any GSA Schedule order: TAA. DoD: DFARS 252.225-7021. If the solicitation includes FAR 52.225-5, you are under TAA at any value.
• If TAA governs, ask for the ++ part number. Cisco's ++ versions exist to keep certain part numbers available as TAA compliant options; the products are identical except for fulfillment route. A C9200-24P-A++ is the same 24-port PoE+ switch as a C9200-24P-A, with TAA paperwork. Not every TAA-eligible product has a ++ suffix; some qualify at their own part number, such as UCS-SPL-5108-AC2-T. Our ++ part number guide lists the families where it exists.
• Budget lead time. Cisco says ++ part numbers can take up to 8 to 10 weeks. Base part numbers are in our switch catalog.
• Order spares as configured options, not separately. Cisco says many spares ordered on their own carry a different country of origin that may not be TAA compliant. Optics are where this bites, so ask for SFP-10G-LR++= rather than SFP-10G-LR= on a TAA-covered order.
• Get the country-of-origin statement either way. One per part number: PID, description, country, date. Under BAA the ++ suffix proves nothing about domestic content, but the same statement answers where the unit was made. If no TAA version exists, Cisco can issue a TAA Certificate for the contracting officer through the partner. Our verification guide has the RFQ wording. TAA misrepresentation is enforced under the False Claims Act, so get it in writing.