HTS WCO Proclamation in Effect Feb 3, Tariff Files & Report Posted
Proclamation 8771 to amend the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule for the World Customs Organization-recommended tariff changes will take effect on February 3, 2012, thirty days after its January 4, 2012 publication in the Federal Register. In the meantime, the ITC has made an unofficial February 3 version of the 2012 online HTS (which includes the WCO-recommended and other changes) available "early," for HTS chapters 1-97. This unofficial version is available here. The ITC states that the official, complete HTS with the WCO-recommended and other changes, etc., will be posted on or about February 3 and the printed 2012 HTS will be available from the Government Printing Office.
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(Note that the ITC posted a "preliminary" version of the 2012 online HTS that was effective January 1, and is to be used until February 3.)
Unofficial version of HTS chapters 1-97 available now. The unofficial online February 3 version is posted chapter- by-chapter. Note that the 97 chapters are posted towards the end of the Web page, so one needs to scroll down the list to find them. Each chapter file is in a 12XXC format and was posted on January 3.
ITC's report on WCO changes only. In addition, the WCO-recommended tariff changes themselves, which accompany Proclamation 8771, are posted in an International Trade Commission report rather than attached to the Proclamation in annexes. The ITC's report on tariff changes available here.
(See ITT's Online Archives 11123001 for summary stating that the Proclamation was signed by President Obama on December 29, 2011 and that it would take effect in early February 2012.
See ITT's Online Archives 11122708 and 11123015 for initial list and corrections to 484(f) statistical changes for the 2012 HTS. See ITT's Online Archives 11122318 for summary of the International Trade Commission's online "preliminary" version of the 2012 HTS that took effect on January 1 (which does not reflect the WCO changes), available here.
See ITT's Online Archives 11122017 for summary detailing the WCO-recommended tariff changes (affecting products in 54 HTS chapters, including many food and agricultural items), which states that these changes are required to be "substantially rate neutral.")