On March 24, 2006, President Bush issued Proclamation 7991 to amend the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), etc. to implement a tariff rate quota (TRQ) under the U.S. - Dominican Republic - Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) for certain sugar and sugar-containing products of El Salvador (the only country to date that the U.S. has implemented the CAFTA-DR for).
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.
On March 15, 2006, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4944, the "Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2006" (Act) by a vote of 412 - 2.
(BP is revising and reissuing this ITT summary as a recent U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) message, Adm: 06-0362, states that the AMS interim final rule on increased assessments for imported potatoes, potato products contains two transposed rates. (See ITT's Online Archives or 03/23/06 news, 06032310 for BP summary reflecting this transposition.) The two corrected rates according to CBP are in bold type below.)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has issued an interim final rule, effective March 8, 2006, that increases the assessment (tax) rate to 2.5 cents (from 2 cents) per hundredweight under the Potato Research and Promotion Plan, on imports of i) seed potatoes and ii) tablestock potatoes imported into the U.S. for ultimate consumption by humans.
On February 28, 2006, President Bush issued Proclamation 7987 which amended the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), etc., to implement the U.S.-Dominican Republic- Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) for El Salvador.
President Issues Proclamation
On February 28, 2006, President Bush issued Proclamation 7987 which amended the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), etc., to implement the U.S.-Dominican Republic- Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) for El Salvador.
On February 28, 2006, President Bush issued Proclamation 7987 which amended the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), etc., to implement the U.S.-Dominican Republic- Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) for El Salvador.
On February 28, 2006, President Bush issued Proclamation 7987 to amend the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), etc., to implement the U.S.-Dominican Republic- Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) for El Salvador.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted four recently reviewed Informed Compliance Publications (ICPs), with March 2006 updates, to its Web site: