The International Trade Commission posted the 2013 edition of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, effective Jan. 1. The new HTS implements provisions detailed in Presidential Proclamation 8921, issued Dec. 20, including the removal of African Growth and Opportunity Act beneficiary treatment for Mali and Guinea-Bissau; modifies statistical suffixes throughout the HTS; and corrects and modifies provisions governing treatment of goods entered pursuant to various free trade agreements, to give them the intended tariff treatment.
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 Census Bureau updated the Schedule B and Harmonized Tariff Schedules in the Automated Export System, effective immediately, to accept changes to the 2013 codes, it said. AES will accept shipments with outdated 2012 codes during a 30-day grace period beyond the expiration date of Dec. 31, Census said. Reporting an outdated code after the 30-day grace period will result in a fatal error.
President Barack Obama added South Sudan as an African Growth and Opportunity Act beneficiary, and removed Mali and Guinea-Bissau as AGOA beneficiaries, in Presidential Proclamation 8921, signed Dec. 20. The proclamation also removes St. Kitts and Nevis as a Generalized System of Preferences beneficiary, extends duty-free treatment for some Israeli agricultural goods pursuant to the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement (USIFTA), and makes technical corrections and conforming changes to Harmonized Tariff Schedule provisions for U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement (USCFTA) rules of origin, the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KFTA), and GSP ineligible country-product pairs. Most of the HTS changes are effective Jan. 1.
The International Trade Commission is asking for comments by Feb. 22 on proposed changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule affecting Chapters 29, 30, 37 and 85. The proposals would implement World Customs Organization Harmonized System changes that were mistakenly omitted from earlier HTS modifications, and would also correct mistakes in the classification of some chemical products. Affected products would include sensitized photographic film, video game console controllers, and chemical compounds.
The Court of International Trade ordered a customs broker to pay a $19,000 penalty for violations of several provisions of the Customs regulations, including failing to notify the importer of record when doing business with an unlicensed person; conducting business without a valid power of attorney; misclassification of entries; and failure to exercise due diligence and responsible supervision and control. The customs broker failed to respond to any of CBP’s pre-penalty notices, penalty notices, and final demands for payments, and did not respond to any notices or motions in this case, so was declared to be in default. As the defendant was in default, CIT took all of CBP’s factual allegations as true, and granted CBP’s motion to collect the penalties.
Revisions to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule for 2013 may include modifications of provisions on Tariff Rate Quotas for Australian beef, as well as the addition of statistical suffixes for certain “certified organic” fruit, vegetable, and nut products, according to a 2013 version of the HTS prematurely posted to the International Trade Commission website. The mistakenly posted HTS was only available for a few hours on Dec. 20. The ITC’s HTS home page now displays the message: “the 2013 edition of the HTS was prematurely published on December 20, 2012. The complete 2013 edition will be published as soon as possible.” The changes would have been effective Jan. 1, 2013.
The Court of International Trade denied Millenium Lumber’s motion to dismiss a penalty action seeking $1.8 million in liquidated damages for the failure to get the necessary licenses to import softwood lumber from Canada. Millenium argued the government failed to exhaust its administrative remedies because CBP didn’t complete administrative proceedings to mitigate the penalty before bringing suit to collect the penalties. Relying on its past precedent, CIT said CBP mitigation proceedings are voluntary and discretionary, and so are not a prerequisite for liquidated damages actions.
CBP issued a memorandum announcing that the 2013 tariff rate quota for milk and cream, fluid or frozen, fresh or sour, provided for in Chapter 4, Additional U.S. Note 5 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule will open on January 2, 2013 with a low-duty quantity of 6,694,840 liters.
The Court of International Trade affirmed CBP’s Harmonized Tariff Schedule classification of R.T. Foods’ tempura vegetables from Thailand as vegetable preparations in Chapter 20, rather than as miscellaneous edible preparations in Chapter 21. CBP’s classification as vegetables specifically described the product, so it could not instead be classified in R.T. Foods’ preferred catch-all edible preparations provision, CIT said.
CBP Los Angeles will be conducting a trade forum on importing requirements for wood and wood products on Feb. 13 at the Port of Long Beach, it said in a public bulletin. The presentation will be conducted by the CBP National Import Specialist for wood products and by CBP agriculture specialist. The program will cover topics including: