ITC Hopes to Add US-Japan Deal Provisions to HTS by End of Week, Tariff Chief Says

The International Trade Commission is working to add provisions on the Trade Agreement between the United States and Japan to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S., James Holbein, director of the ITC’s Office of Tariff Affairs and Trade Agreements, said in an interview Jan. 7. Technical issues with the ITC’s electronic system for updating the tariff schedule had led to the omission of new General Note 36, as well as provisions in chapter 99, from the 2020 Basic Edition of the HTS, Holbein said. The ITC’s information technology office is currently working to fix those issues, he said.

Holbein said he hopes the fixes will be in place by the end of the week, but the new provisions are also available on the ITC tariff affairs webpage. That includes new General Note 36, and new Subchapter XXI to chapter 99, which comprises a note and two tariff subheadings giving special treatment under the deal to parts of air conditioner machines. The ITC will also add a table to chapter 99 listing tariff changes under the U.S.-Japan agreement, though the table is not currently available.

Going forward, brokers and importers should be on the lookout for more frequent changes to the tariff schedule, according to Holbein. The ITC is beginning a process of biweekly revisions to the tariff schedule to account for changes related to exclusions from trade remedies, including Section 301 tariffs on China, he said.