CBP posted an agenda (here) and other documents for the upcoming Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting on Nov. 17 (here) in Washington. Among the posted items are draft recommendations from the forced labor working group (here) that suggest regulatory changes should be made to define when CBP must decide to make a formal finding after a withhold release order is issued. Currently, CBP's regulations don't specify timing, so "CBP should establish an appropriate timeframe to respond to an importer’s proof of admissibility as a result of a WRO," the group said. The agency should also make changes to proof of admissibility requirements in the regulations and seek comments on any changes, it said.
Harmonized Tariff Schedule
The Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) is a reference manual that provides duty rates for almost every item that exists. It is a system of classifying and taxing all goods imported into the United States. The HTS is based on the international Harmonized System, which is a global standard for naming and describing trade products, and consists of a hierarchical structure that assigns a specific code and rate to each type of merchandise for duty, quota, and statistical purposes. The HTS was made effective on January 1, 1989, replacing the former Tariff Schedules of the United States. It is maintained by the U.S. International Trade Commission, but the Customs and Border Protection of the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for interpreting and enforcing the HTS.
PROVIDENCE -- The addition of more Partner Government Agencies (PGAs) to ACE in coming months is likely to drive a difficult expansion in the data collected by the government, said Amy Magnus, director of customs affairs and compliance at A.N. Deringer, while speaking at the Northeast Cargo Symposium on Nov. 10. Despite significant progress in ACE in 2016, the new PGAs are bound to be a source of anxiety as 2017 approaches, she said. The "most chilling" agencies to be added are Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service "Core" and the Fish and Wildlife Service, she said.
All International Trade Commission website and web-based applications will be unavailable starting at 1 p.m. Eastern time Nov. 11, including the commission’s Electronic Documents Information System, Harmonized Tariff Schedule search, Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Petition System, and DataWeb, as the ITC upgrades its internet security infrastructure, the commission said (here). Although the outage “is not expected to be long,” it could last as long as 24 hours, and system users should check intermittently on availability and plan activities accordingly, the ITC said.
Several petitions filed for temporary Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) duty suspensions and reductions contain incomplete article descriptions that may not be administrable by CBP, and the International Trade Commission (ITC) released guidance to help filers craft such descriptions, the commission said. The ITC opened MTB petition filings on Oct. 14, in line with the process outlined in the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016 enacted May 20. The guidance (here) says article descriptions should include clear and administrable language, applicable Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) subheading numbers, and any standard identification numbers or names, such as Chemical Abstracts Service number for chemicals. The guidance notes that product descriptions are different from article descriptions, which go into an HTS heading in Chapter 99. Product descriptions are narratives that inform about other details of the product.
While it’s not certain when the government will require Electronic Export Information filings to include partner government agency (PGA) datasets, the government will most likely issue the first regulations within the next six months to a year, “depending on the agency and what they do,” CBP Outbound Branch Chief, Export Controls Branch, Robert Rawls said Nov. 1 during the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Update 2016 Conference on Export Controls and Policy. After AES PGA filing requirements go into effect, filings will “trigger a hit” if a Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) code logged in the Automated Export System requires a permit, and an automated message will direct the filer to provide a permit number, BIS Office of Technology Evaluation Director Gerard Horner said during the conference, citing as an example Environmental Protection Agency requirements for lead acid battery exports.
The size of imported bags from China is the determining factor for classification as either a handbag or a tote bag, CBP said in Aug. 17 ruling that was recently released (here). Kohl's Department Stores requested reconsideration of a 2008 CBP ruling that also classified the bags as tote bags. "Although the bag at issue is a larger sized bag, it is designed as a daily use handbag, fitting with the current fashion trends," Kohl's said to CBP in its 2008 request for reconsideration. The handbag classification includes a 16 percent duty rate, whereas the tote bag classification has a 20 percent duty rate.
Recent developments in ACE for exports include elimination of one of two “No License Required” codes in the Automated Export System (AES) and the State Department’s work to integrate all paper license values into ACE for decrementation, officials said Oct. 31 during the Bureau of Industry and Security Conference on Export Controls and Policy.
The World Customs Organization on Oct. 28 released the 2017 version of the Harmonized System (HS) tariff nomenclature, it said (here). The new version (here) will replace the 2012 HS upon implementation by the 154 members of the HS Convention, including the U.S., on Jan. 1, 2017, the WCO said. The 2017 edition includes 242 changes at the six-digit level, the WCO said, including 85 relating to the agricultural sector; 45 to the chemical sector; 22 to the wood sector; 15 to the textile sector; 6 to the base metal sector; 25 to the machinery sector; 18 to the transport sector; and an additional 26 that apply to a variety of other sectors (see 14073002, 14073101, 1607290033 and 1608180038). The WCO also corrected tables correlating the 2012 and 2017 HS (here).
Nepal supplied less than 0.05 percent of total U.S. imports of textiles and apparel in 2015, according to an International Trade Commission report on import sensitivity of certain products in the category from that country (here). U.S. imports from the country within the 66 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) subheadings reviewed fell 7 percent between May 2015 and May 2016, the agency said. The report covered products including certain luggage, handbags, pocket goods, travel bags, carpets and textile floor coverings, scarves, blankets, hats and gloves. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative requested the report, which also found the U.S. didn’t import products belonging to 20 of the HTS subheadings under review. In July, USTR requested a World Trade Organization waiver to allow it to implement a program authorized by recently enacted customs reauthorization legislation that would give duty-free treatment to certain products from Nepal (see 1606290042). USTR didn’t comment.
The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on steel concrete reinforcing bar from Japan (A-588-876), Taiwan (A-583-859) and Turkey (A-489-829), and countervailing duty investigation on steel concrete reinforcing bar from Turkey (C-489-830).