The European Commission (EC) has issued Regulation EC 623/2006, effective May 1, 2006, in order to add eight products to the list of U.S.-originating products currently subject to 15% additional customs duties in response to the U.S.' disbursements under the repealed Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA, commonly known as the "Byrd Amendment") for fiscal year (FY) 2005.
Customs Duty
A Customs Duty is a tariff or tax which a country imposes on goods when they are transported across international borders. Customs Duties are used to protect countries' economies, residents, jobs, and environments, by limiting the flow of imported merchandise, especially restricted and prohibited goods, into the country. The Customs Duty Rate is a percentage determined by the value of the article purchased in the foreign country and not based on quality, size, or weight.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice announcing the closure of review for cases 012-CP-05, protection of worker Rights in Swaziland, and 015-CP-05, protection of intellectual property in Kazakhstan. According to USTR, the Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) decided to close these cases following its 2005 Annual Review of petitions concerning the practices of certain beneficiary developing countries of the General System of Preferences (GSP) program. (FR Pub 05/01/06, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-6536.pdf)
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued a notice announcing the opportunity to request administrative reviews by May 31, 2006 for individual producers or exporters subject to the following antidumping (AD) and/or countervailing (CV) duty orders:
CBP has issued its weekly tariff rate quota (TRQ) commodity report as of May 1, 2006. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa powder, tobacco, certain CAFTA-DR, JFTA, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs, etc. This report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, CAFTA-DR, CBTPA, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA (Chile FTA) tariff preference levels (TPLs) and TRQs for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly TRQ/TPL commodity report, dated 05/01/06, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued additional notices stating that effective April 27, 2006, ACS programming now allows the ABI filing of preference claims under the U.S. - Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). As a result, non-ABI entries are no longer required and any quota entries (textiles or agricultural tariff-rate quotas) that had been held by the ports due to the unavailability of ABI can now be processed through the quota module. (See ITT's Online Archives or 04/27/06 news, 06042705 for earlier BP summary) (QBT-06-014 (textiles), QBT-06-527 (agricultural TRQs), dated 04/27/06, available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/qbts/qbt2006/06_014.ctt/06_014.doc and http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/qbts/qbt2006/06_527.ctt/06_527.doc respectively.)
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated a new shipper review for the countervailing (CV) duty order on certain welded carbon steel standard pipe from Turkey, with respect to the following company and review period:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued to the ports and posted to its Web site instructions regarding (1) the use of visas to make claims for duty-free treatment under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for qualifying textile and/or apparel articles (textile articles) from Chad that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after April 26, 2006, and (2) quota reporting for certain apparel articles from Chad that are subject to the AGOA aggregate tariff preference level (TPL or Cap) and its sublimit.
On April 26, 2006, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on "Authorization of Customs and Trade Functions" in order to review the operation of customs and trade functions in the federal government. This review will assist the Finance Committee in preparing legislation to reauthorize those functions.
In the April 26, 2006 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (CBP Bulletin) (Vol. 40, No. 18), CBP issued a notice proposing to modify or revoke five classification rulings on certain base metal medallions and medals. CBP states that it is also proposing to revoke any treatment previously accorded by it on substantially identical transactions.
In the April 19, 2006 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (CBP Bulletin) (Vol. 40, No. 17), CBP issued a notice revoking a classification ruling on antimony trisulphide. CBP states that it is also revoking any treatment it has previously accorded to substantially identical transactions.