CBP Announces Temporary Visa Procedures for Haiti HOPE Textile Shipments
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum announcing temporary visa procedures for textile shipments associated with Haiti HOPE claims.
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(Given the recent natural disaster in Haiti, CBP is in the process of assessing the impact on the processing of imported merchandise claiming a Haiti HOPE preference.
The Office of International Trade's Textile/Apparel Policy and Programs Division is seeking to determine the extent of Haiti's ability to utilize the Electronic Visa Information System (ELVIS) and/or issue paper visas for shipments of textiles to be claimed as qualifying for Haiti HOPE benefits.)
Paper Visas to be Issued if No ELVIS, "Dummy" Visas if Paper/ELVIS Unavailable
If the government of Haiti is unable to transmit visa information via ELVIS, but personnel are available to issue paper visas, CBP will temporarily return to a manual (paper) visa requirement.
If it also not possible for the Haitian government to transmit via ELVIS or issue paper visas, the HQ Quota Branch will implement a temporary "dummy" visa numbering process so that the ports will be able to process quota.
Temporary Procedures in Place Until ELVIS/Paper Availability Determined
The following procedures will be in place for textile shipments associated with Haiti HOPE claims until it has been determined that the government of Haiti is able to transmit visa information via ELVIS:
- If a valid ELVIS transmission has been received, filers should use the visa number on the entry associated with the shipment.
- If the shipment has a valid paper visa, the visa number should be used on the entry associated with the shipment.
- When no ELVIS transmission or paper visa document exists for shipments eligible for Haiti HOPE claims, the filer should use the specially constructed visa number 0HT999999 along with the Chapter 98 and Chapter 61-62 Harmonized Tariff Schedule provisions to designate the entry as a Haiti HOPE claim.
- CBP port personnel should continue to input entries associated with Haiti HOPE claims into the quota module of ACS. This applies to entries subject to both quota and visa requirements as well as those entries requiring a visa but not subject to a quantitative limit.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 01/29/09 news, 09012915, for BP summary of CBP announcing the ELVIS requirements for Haiti HOPE textiles and apparel.
See ITT's Online Archives or 10/01/09 news, 09100125, for BP summary announcing that CBP was eliminating the paper visa requirement for the Haiti HOPE ELVIS program.
See ITT's Online Archives or 12/17/09 news, 09121735, for BP summary of CITA's announcement of the 12-Month duty-free HOPE value-added apparel TPL through December 19, 2010.)
CBP contact - Robert Abels (202) 863-6503
QBT-10-101 and TBT-10-002 (dated 01/21/10) available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/trade_programs/textiles_and_quotas/qbts/qbt2010/qbt_10_101.ctt/qbt_10_101.pdf