The U.S. is preparing to implement hundreds of tariff changes in the 2007 U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) in order to conform U.S. law to international Harmonized System (HS) nomenclature changes recommended for adoption by the World Customs Organization (WCO), and certain Harmonized System Committee (HSC) decisions necessary to ensure uniform application of the nomenclature, etc.
The State Department has issued a public notice identifying all the countries eligible for trade in rough diamonds under the Clean Diamond Trade Act of 2003 and those participants' respective Importing and Exporting Authorities. According to the State Department, this notice revises the previously published list of October 26, 2005 to include New Zealand. (See ITT's Online Archives or 10/28/05 news, 05102899 6, for BP summary of the previously published list.) (Public Notice 5587, FR Pub 10/25/06, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-17894.pdf)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memo containing its implementation instructions for the U.S.-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA 2006).
CBP has posted to its Web site a notice announcing the opening of the tariff rate quota (TRQ) on tobacco as provided for in HTS Chapter 24, Additional U.S. Note (AUSN) 5 for the period September 13, 2006 through September 12, 2007. According to CBP, this TRQ opens on September 13, 2006.
CBP has posted to its Web site a notice announcing a "weekly" special import quota of 23,276,125 kg for upland cotton purchased not later than December 5, 2006 and entered under HTS 9903.52.22. The quota period is September 7, 2006 through March 5, 2007; the opening date is September 7, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. EDT, or its equivalent in other time zones.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memorandum titled: "US-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement Implementation Instructions," that provides instructions for the filing and acceptance of claims for preferential treatment of goods under the U.S.- Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (BFTA).
The Census Bureau has posted to its Web site a list of 213 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) numbers that are invalid for use in the Automated Export System (AES) as of July 1, 2006. These 213 HTS numbers cover various articles in HTS Chapters 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, 17, 19, 24, 27, 39, 44, 52, 74, 84, 85, 88, and 90.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice announcing that the Customs Electronic Bulletin Board (CEBB) has been retired and all valid materials have been migrated to updated systems, including cbp.gov. CBP's notice notes certain new locations for various information, as the CEBB page itself will be retired on September 30, 2006. (CBP notice, undated, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/communications_to_trade/cebb_linklist.xml)
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has posted to its Web site an updated version of the 2006 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTS) dated July 1, 2006 (Supplement 1).