CBP Gives Guidance on FTA Origination Analysis Without a Tariff Change Rule

A "very limited" number of goods in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States don't have corresponding free trade agreement (FTA) tariff change rules (TCR), CBP said in a CSMS message (here). That's because the FTAs were negotiated using an HTS that has since been modified -- in 2007, 2012 or 2017 -- and corresponding tariff change rules have not yet been implemented, the agency said. "Until revised TCRs are implemented, manufacturers/exporters/importers of affected goods seeking to perform a tariff-shift origination analysis should classify the good and its materials using the most recent HTSUS in which the tariff item has a corresponding TCR and perform the origination analysis using that year’s HTSUS," it said.

The certificate of origin (CO) should include both the current HTS number and the HTS number used to perform the TCR, it said. "For example, beneath the description of the good in block 5 of the CO, the statement '(Origination analysis performed using HTSUS xxxx.xx.xxxx (20XX) since no TCR for item number yyyy.yy.yyyy in 2017 HTSUS.),'" CBP said. It added the instruction: "[Replace placeholders with the appropriate numbers/dates]." Then, the "CO could look something like this: 'Origination analysis performed using HTSUS xxxx.xx.xxxx (2016) since no TRC for item number yyyy.yy.yyyy in 2017 HTSUS.'"

CBP also provided a table listing the TCR status for each FTA (here). Only the Chile FTA and Korea FTA have had the TCRs updated to comply with the 2012 changes and none have been updated to comply with the 2017 changes, it said. The CAFTA-DR, Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA), Morocco FTA, Oman FTA, Panama TPA and Peru TPA have yet to be updated for the 2007 HTSUS.