U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of April 14, 2008. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, tobacco, certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs, etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly TRQ/TPL commodity report, dated 04/14/08, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/trade/trade_programs/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/.)
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.
Proclamation 8228 recently amended the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to, among other things, restore certain duty rates that were inadvertently increased by the World Customs Organization (WCO)-recommended changes to the HTS that took effect on February 3, 2007, as follows:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a notice announcing that agriculture1 has been designated as a Priority Trade Issue (PTI).
President Bush has transmitted to Congress the legislation and supporting documents necessary to implement the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.
President Bush has issued Proclamation 8228, which retroactively amends the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to, among other things, restore certain duty rates adversely affected by the World Customs Organization-recommended changes to the HTS that were implemented on February 3, 2007.
Reminder: Comments on House Miscellaneous Tariff and Duty Suspension Bills are Due by April 10, 2008
In February 2008, the leadership of the House Ways and Means Committee's Trade Subcommittee requested written comments for the record from interested parties on hundreds of miscellaneous tariff and duty suspension bills.1
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has adopted as a final rule, without change, its June 2007 interim rule which added a new subpart K to 19 CFR Part 10 and amended 19 CFR Parts 163 and 178 regarding the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the U.S-Jordan Free Trade Agreement (JFTA)1.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a new informed compliance publication entitled, What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: Classification of Coated and Water Resistant Apparel.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a memo to inform the trade community that the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) preference rules for certain apparel may soon be modified.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted four informed compliance publications to its Web site that were reviewed in February or March 2008 with little or no change.