ITC Issues Revision 16 of 2019 HTS With GSP Changes, New 301 Exclusions

November 1, 2019 by Brian Feito|Top News

The International Trade Commission issued Revision 16 to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. Changes in the new edition that take effect Nov. 1 include the restoration of eligibility of many Ukrainian goods for the Generalized System of Preferences, as well as implementation of the results of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s 2019 GSP product review, which also requires minor changes to tariff subheadings for certain plywood. A new set of exclusions from Section 301 tariffs on products from China are also added to the tariff schedule.

The largest set of changes in Revision 16 reflect the reinstatement of GSP eligibility for goods from Ukraine under 138 HTS subheadings after they were suspended as a result of concerns related to intellectual property rights (see 1910280044). General Note 4(d) is amended to remove these country-product pairs from the list of products ineligible for GSP. Correspondingly, special column 1 for subheadings for which Ukraine was the only ineligible country is amended so it now has special program indicator “A” (instead of “A*”) to signify that the subheading is eligible for GSP from all countries.

Not all Ukrainian goods are now eligible for GSP. Country-product pairs for Ukraine remaining on the General Note 4(d) ineligible list include subheadings 1806.90.90, 4011.10.10, 6116.10.08, 8456.12.90, 8504.40.95, 8504.50.80, 8516.71.00, 8516.79.00, 8518.29.80, 8518.50.00, 8543.70.42, 8543.70.95, 8903.10.00, 9013.10.30, 9027.10.20, 9030.39.01, 9031.80.80 and 9506.11.40.

Revision 16 also implements to results of USTR’s 2019 GSP product review (see 1910280052). New country-product pairs are added to the General Note 4(d) ineligible list for stearic acid from Indonesia under subheading 3823.11.00 and buses from North Macedonia under subheading 8702.10.31, after exceeding annual import limits. The SPI in special column two for these subheadings is changed to “A*” to reflect their ineligibility for GSP when imported from certain countries.

Conversely, country-product pairs 0603.13.00 from Thailand (orchids) and 4412.10.05 for bamboo plywood from Indonesia are removed from the General Note 4(d) ineligible list after USTR granted petitions to reinstate them into GSP. SPI “A*” is changed to “A” for subheading 0603.13.00, while subheading 4412.10.05 retains SPI “A*” because of continued ineligibility for Brazil and Ecuador.

A third country-product pair -- for certain plywood sheets not over 6 mm sheets with a tropical wood outer ply from Indonesia -- was also reinstated into GSP, but the partial reinstatement necessitated a new HTS subheading for the product. Old subheading 4412.31.41 is deleted from the tariff schedule, and replaced by new eight-digit breakouts that are similar, but not identical to, the former subheading’s 10-digit statistical breakouts.

New subheading 4412.31.42 covers plywood not over 6mm, with a face ply of mahogany. New subheading 4412.31.45 covers the same plywood but with a face ply of other tropical woods, and in panels not exceeding 3.6 mm in thickness and exceeding 1.2 m in width and 2.2 m in length. Subheading 4412.31.48 covers “other” plywood, not exceeding 5 mm in thickness, with a face ply of tropical wood.

Rather than apply to all of the former subheading 4412.31.41, the reinstatement applies only to new subheading 4412.31.45 from Indonesia. Plywood not meeting the dimensional requirements of subheading 4412.31.45 or with a face ply of mahogany remain ineligible, so subheadings 4412.31.42 and 4412.31.48 from Indonesia replace former subheading 4412.31.45 on the General Note 4(d) ineligible list.

Finally, General Note 4(a), which lists the countries eligible for GSP, is amended to reflect the name change of Macedonia to North Macedonia.

Unrelated to the GSP changes, new General Note 20(ll) is added to subchapter III of chapter 99 for new exclusions granted on the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs (See 1910240004). Goods imported under the new exclusions, which take retroactive effect as of Sept. 24, 2018, are filed under new HTS subheading 9903.88.33. Notes and subheadings for Section 301 exclusions are amended accordingly to reflect the new exclusions.