CBP Issues Final Rule on NAFTA Rules of Origin

CBP made technical corrections relating to the NAFTA rules of origin in a final rule published in the Federal Register and effective on Sept. 25. The corrections apply to 19 CFR 102.20 of CBP's rules, which are used to determine whether a good is considered NAFTA-originating, and will allow CBP's tariff shift rules to conform with the current Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), said CBP. The new CBP rule follows the Feb. 3 update to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, which contained hundreds of World Customs Organization-recommended as well as other tariff changes.

(CBP previously issued Harmonized System Update 1201 for the 2012 HTS. The update contains 9,350 ABI records and 2,155 harmonized tariff records. See ITT's Online Archives 12012501 for summary.)

Certain tariff provisions have been added or removed, and certain goods have been transferred, for tariff classification purposes, to different or newly-created tariff provisions as a result of the 2012 HTS changes, said CBP. The changes to the HTS involve product coverage and/or numbering of certain headings and subheadings and are not intended to have any other substantive effect. The rule also makes technical corrections to Section 102.20 and 102.21 so that the regulations conform to the tariff shift rules. It also corrects typographical errors in certain subheadings of Chapter 90 that occurred when the regulations were updated for the 2007 HTS.

(See ITT's Online Archives 12020325 for summary of the Feb. 3 HTS update including World Customs Organization-recommended changes.)

Section 102 Changes

According to the notice,

• The following HTS entries were removed:
  • “0305.30”, “0305.41-0305.69”, “2903.41-2903.49”, “2903.51-2904.90”, “2914.21-2914.22”, “4808.20-4808.30”, “6406.20-6406.99”, “6505.10”, “6811.83”, “8452.30-8452.40”, “9007.11-9007.19”, “9008.10-9008.40”, and “9504.10-9506.29”;
• The following HTS entries were added:
  • “0305.31-0305.39”, “0305.41-0305.79”, “0308”, “2903.71-2903.79”, “2903.81-2904.90”, “2914.22”, “3826.00”, “4808.40”, “6406.20-6406.90”, “6505.00”, “8452.30”, “9007.10”, “9008.50”, “9504.20-9506.29”, and “9619.00”;
• The following HTS entries were changed:
  • “0306”, “0307”, “1601-1605”, “2009.41-2009.80”, “2826.12-2833.19”, “2835.29-2835.39”, “2842.10”, “2848”, “2849.10-2849.90”, “2850”, “2852”, “2933.11-2934.99”, “2937-2941”, “3002.10-3002.90”, “3201.10-3202.90”, “3501.10-3501.90”, “3502.20-3502.90”, “3503-3504”, “3808.99”, “3824.71-3824.90”, “3901-3915”, “3922-3926”, “4817-4822”,

Examples

CBP also provided four examples on the needed changes. One such example:

Under the 2012 amendments to the HTSUS, a heading was created at 3826, HTS, to provide for “biodiesel and mixtures thereof, not containing or containing less than 70 percent by weight of petroleum oils or oils obtained from bituminous minerals.” Prior to the 2012 amendments, these products were classified in the basket “other” provision under subheading 3824.90, HTS. As new heading 3826, HTS, is not included in the rules set forth in § 102.20(f), it is not possible to determine the origin of goods classifiable under this provision using the current regulations. Accordingly, section102.20(f) must be amended in order to add heading 3826, HTS, and a new tariff shift rule added; furthermore, the tariff shift rule for subheading 3824.90 must be updated to reflect the shift in goods to the new heading 3826, HTS. It should be noted that these technical corrections to section 102.20(f) will produce the same result as when biodiesel and mixtures thereof, not containing or containing less than 70 percent by weight of petroleum oils or oils obtained from bituminous minerals were classified under subheading 3824.90, HTSUS, in the 2011 HTS.