CBP Releases Colombia Free Trade Act System Requirements

April 30, 2012 by Tim Warren|Top News

U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided Colombia Free Trade Act system requirements in a CSMS message April 30, 2012.

To claim Colombian free trade benefits, the following Automated Broker Interface (ABI) system requirements must be met:

1) The country of origin must be ‘CO’. The country of origin field is reported on the entry summary record identifier 40 (input), positions 6 -- 7.

2) The country of export must be ‘CO’. The country of export field is indicated in the entry summary record identifier 50 record (positions 69 -- 70).

3) The tariff number associated with the claim must contain the special program indicator ‘CO’. The tariff number with the Colombian Free Trade indication may either be free or a reduced rate. If the rate is reduced, the duty rate will be indicated in the special rate field with the ISO code of ‘CO’.

4) The merchandise process fee edits for the Colombia free trade claims are the following:

Colombia free trade claims are exempt from the merchandise processing fees (class code 499 and class code 311).
There will be situations where a tariff number is duty free. Duty free tariff numbers do not have special program indicators. If the merchandise associated with these duty free tariff numbers qualifies under the Colombian originating FTA provisions, the Merchandise Processing Fees (MPF) exemption can be made by transmitting the country code special program indicator ‘CO’ (entry summary record identifier 50 input record, positions 78 -- 79) or records 70/80/81 special program (country) indicator field (positions 79 -- 80).

5) Quota -- tariff numbers 9822.08.01 -- 9822.08.35, 9918.02.01 -- 9918.24.20 are subject to quota.

6) The Colombian Free Trade Agreement is effective 05/15/2012.

7) Effective 05/15/2012, Colombia will no longer be eligible for Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) benefits (SPI code A) and no longer eligible for Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA/ATPDEA) benefits (SPI codes j and j+).

CBP will send out a future message when the above system changes have been completed in ACS and no Colombia FTA claims through ACS(EI)or ACE(AE) should be filed until this message is sent, said CBP.

Contacts

Quota issues should be referred to Richard Wallio at 202-863-6508 (richard.wallio@dhs.gov).
Textile issues should be referred to Jacqueline Sprungle at 202-863-6517 (jacqueline.sprungle@dhs.gov).
Non textile policy and procedure issues should be referred to Katrina In-suk Chang at 202-863-6532 (katrina.chang@dhs.gov).

The U.S.-Colombia trade agreement’s implementing bill was approved on October 12, 2011 (See ITT's Online Archives 11101002). See ITT's Online Archives 12041630 for the summary of the trade agreement's implementation.