Supplement 1 to HTS Effective July 1; Changes to GSP Eligibility, Stat Suffixes, Etc.

GSP Changes

Supplement 1 to HTS 2012 makes the following changes to tariff provisions of the Generalized System of Preferences, pursuant to President Obama’s upcoming proclamation.

Ineligible country-product pairs. Supplement 1 adds exceptions to GSP eligibility for the following now ineligible country-product pairs:

Accordingly, for each of these tariff numbers in the HTS the “A” symbol in the special rates of duty column is changed to an “A*”, which denotes that exceptions to GSP exist for the tariff number. There is no change to the special rates of duty column for tariff numbers with an existing excepted country-product pair, but that had a country added to the exceptions. The table of existing country-product pairs contained in General Note 4(d) has also been amended.

(The U.S. Trade Representative had received nine petitions for competitive need limitation (CNL) waivers. While the proclamation has not been issued yet, these HTS changes indicate that CNL waivers were not granted for the following country-product pairs: Turkey / 2840.19.00 (Disodium tetraborate (refined borax) except anhydrous); Brazil / 2922.41.00 (Lysine and its esters and salts thereof); Indonesia / 7606.12.30 (Aluminum alloy, plates/sheets/strip, with thickness of 0.2mm, rectangular (including square), not clad); and India / 8708.30.50 (Parts and accessories of motor vehicles of heading 8701, not elsewhere specified or included, and heading 8702-8705, brakes and servo-brakes & parts thereof).)

The exception for the country-product pair of the Ivory Coast and tariff number 0802.70.20 was removed from the table of excepted country-product pairs, and the entry in the special rates of duty for that tariff number was changed from “A*” to “A”, accordingly.

GSP for some cotton products reserved for LDCs. Certain cotton products were given GSP eligibility for least-developed country GSP beneficiaries only. Accordingly, “A+” was added to the special rates of duty column. Affected tariff numbers include:

(See ITT’s Online Archives 12052901 for summary of ITC report on GSP changes, including on the proposal to add these cotton products as LDC GSP-eligible.)

Name change in GSP beneficiary tables. ITC changed the name of “East Timor” to “Timor-Leste“ in General Note 4 Tables 4(a) (beneficiary developing countries); and 4(b)(i) (LDC beneficiaries).

Other Statistical Changes

The ITC’s Supplement 1 to HTS 2012 makes the following changes that were approved by the Committee for Statistical Annotation of Tariff Schedules (formulated pursuant to section 484(f), Tariff Act of 1930, as amended):

Statistical definition of "organic" changed for U.S.-EU accord. Statistical Note 2 to Chapter 4 and Statistical Note 1 to Chapters 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 define the term “Certified organic” as “a fresh or processed agricultural product that is certified to the United States Department of Agriculture National Organic Program Regulation (7 CFR 205) or the Canadian Organic Products Regulations (SOR/2006-338 COPR).” This supplement adds European Union (EU) Council Regulation (EC) No.834/2007 and Commission Regulations (EC) No. 889/2008 and 1235/2008 to the recognized certifications, pursuant to the recent U.S.-European Union accord on recognizing each other’s organic certifications.

(See ITT’s Online Archives 12060504 for summary of the U.S.-EU organic accord.)

Changes to statistical suffixes. ITC amended statistical suffixes for the following HTS subheadings: