The International Trade Commission issued a notice (here) requesting petitions starting Oct. 14 for duty suspensions and reductions as part of its role in the federal review process for miscellaneous tariff bills (MTB), whose final approval must come from Congress. Petitions will be accepted until 5:15 p.m. Eastern time on Dec. 12. The MTB petitioning platform will ask applicants for information on customs rulings on products claimed for duty benefits, names of other importers of the products, and any antidumping or countervailing duty orders, among other things, ITC officials said during an Oct. 12 in-person walk-through of the agency’s new MTB portal. "If it’s a private-letter ruling, which is something a petitioning company would know whether it has, that would be treated as confidential," ITC MTB Program Manager Jennifer Rohrbach said during the walk-through session.
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.
The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of Oct. 10 (some may also be given separate headlines):
CBP said it created Harmonized System Update (HSU) 1613 on Oct. 4, containing 4,489 ABI records and 1,613 harmonized tariff records (here). Modifications include changes to the steel LPC code. Modifications include those mandated by the Agricultural Marketing Service, adjusting the assessment on imported cotton and cotton products. Participating Government Agency (PGA) indicators were also updated, and adjustments required by the verification of the 2016 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) are included as well. The modified records can be retrieved electronically via the procedures indicated in the CATAIR. Further information: Jennifer Keeling, Jennifer.Keeling@dhs.gov
Developing countries should accede to the World Trade Organization Information Technology Agreement (ITA) expansion to drive innovation and broaden international commerce, Intel said in a blog post (here). “In the long term, ITA empowers the formation of a global [information and communication technology] supply chain as participating countries benefit both from cheaper imports of components and materials, as well as from exporting finalized products,” Intel said. An expansion of the agreement covering an additional 201 products worth about $1.3 trillion per year was completed at the WTO Nairobi Ministerial Conference in December 2015. The International Trade Commission posted ITA-related changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule July 1 (see 1607050003).
Harmonized tariff schedule and Schedule B tables were updated in the Automated Export System (AES) to reflect implementation of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, effective immediately, the Census Bureau said in an email. Among the wide-ranging additions are tariff lines for various metals, foods, tobacco products, textiles and chemicals.
A coalition of domestic rebar manufacturers filed a petition on Sept. 19 with the Commerce Department and International Trade Commission, requesting new antidumping duties on steel concrete reinforcing bar from Japan, Taiwan and Turkey, and additional countervailing duties on steel-concrete reinforcing bar from Turkey. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on these products that could result in the imposition of duties.
CBP will not immediately reject export filings without data required by the National Marine Fisheries Service once NMFS ACE export requirements take effect Sept. 20 (see 1608150011), according to an update from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. Export filers that do not include the additional data elements will receive a “verify” or “warning” message at this time, although eventually the missing data will cause a fatal error, the update said. The Automated Export System is already programmed to accept the additional NMFS data elements, and by Oct. 1 will include Schedule B and Harmonized Tariff Schedule flags, it said. "If the exporter's commodities are subject to the NMFS regulation, they will have to provide you with the data elements and in turn, you will have to provide them with the ITN [(internal transaction number)] so that they can upload the necessary documents to NMFS,” the NCBFAA said. CBP did not immediately comment.
President Barack Obama is adding Myanmar as a least developed beneficiary developing country to the list of Generalized System of Preferences beneficiaries after a roughly 27-year absence from the program, he said in a proclamation to Congress (here). Harmonized Tariff Schedule General Notes 4(a) and 4(b)(i) will be modified to list “Burma.” Modifications to the HTS will take effect and apply to goods withdrawn from a warehouse for consumption or entered on or after Nov. 13, according to the proclamation. The announcement aligns with Obama’s meeting scheduled with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in the Oval Office Sept. 14. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative started reviews to consider Myanmar’s GSP eligibility in April 2013, after the nation’s qualification for the program was withdrawn in 1989 because of worker rights violations (see 13041521). A joint statement on the U.S.-Myanmar relationship said the Asian country has strengthened its protections for "internationally recognized worker rights."
U.S. negotiators and the government of Morocco agreed in principle to modify rules of origin for textile and apparel goods under tariff provisions of the U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement to reflect initial determinations that U.S. and Moroccan producers can’t produce certain fabrics in large bulk quantities in a timely manner, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a letter to International Trade Commission Chairman Irving Williamson (here). With final approval, products listed in the agreement as originating would include:
The National Marine Fisheries Service is working on screening and targeting criteria to determine what entries subject to new International Fisheries Trade Permit (IFTP) and ACE filing requirements it will select for manual review, said Christopher Rogers, assistant director of the international fisheries division of the NMFS Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspection, during a Sept. 1 webinar. Given the large number of entries the agency will have to review once ACE filing becomes mandatory for NMFS data on Sept. 20, the agency will rely on the criteria to decide whether to review entries before or after the shipment is released, he said.