ITC Institutes Investigation on Proposed HTS Modifications
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has instituted an investigation (No. 1205-6) on proposed modifications to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTS), pursuant to 19 USC 3005.
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(According to the ITC, 19 USC 3005 directs the ITC to keep the HTS under continuous review and to recommend to the President modifications: (1) when amendments to the International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (Harmonized System), and the Protocol thereto, are recommended by the World Customs Organization (WCO) for adoption, and (2) as other circumstances warrant. The President may proclaim the tariff modifications recommended by the ITC, following Congressional layover and consultation.)
The ITC states that the majority of the proposed changes included in this investigation are the result of the work of the WCO and its Harmonized System Committee (HSC) to update and clarify the Harmonized System nomenclature, as part of the WCO's long-term program to periodically review the nomenclature structure. In accordance with Article 16 of the Harmonized System Convention, the WCO has recommended the adoption of certain modifications to the Harmonized System, which are due to become effective in January 2007.
ITC to prepare & make available three reports.According to the ITC, it plans to prepare and make available the following three reports:
Draft preliminary report will be available on/about September 15, 2004
Preliminary report will be forwarded to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on/about February 28, 2005
Final report will be submitted to the President on March 15, 2006
The ITC states that each report will include a successive version of a non-authoritative cross-reference table linking the proposed tariff classes to corresponding current tariff classes. The ITC also states that the WCO Secretariat will eventually issue its own advisory cross-reference table between the 2002 and the 2007 Harmonized System, which may be released by the ITC later in its investigation.
In addition, the ITC states that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has domestic legal authority for tariff classification and may provide information, both during the course of the investigation and after the ITC's final report is submitted, that indicates different or additional tariff classifications of some goods.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 11/24/99 news, 99112333, for BP summary of the ITC's institution of Investigation No. 1205-5 in November 1999.)
- written comments on the draft preliminary report are due by November 1, 2004.
ITC contact - Eugene Rosengarden (202) 205-2592
ITC notice (Investigation No. 1205-6, FR Pub 09/14/04) available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/06jun20041800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2004/pdf/04-20675.pdf
Draft preliminary report containing proposed modifications to be available at http://www.usitc.gov/taffairs.htmHTS