On August 2, 2005 President Bush signed H.R. 3045, the "Dominican Republic-Central America-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) Implementation Act" (Act) into law (Public Law (P.L.) 109-53).
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 International Trade Commission (ITC) is soliciting proposals from interested parties and agencies by October 14, 2005 to amend the international Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (Harmonized System, HS), including the rules of interpretation, section and chapter notes and the texts of the headings and subheadings, with a view to keeping the HS current with changes in technology and trade patterns.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty administrative reviews:
The Journal of Commerce reports that the Coast Guard had closed all ports from New Orleans to the Florida Panhandle ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Katrina on the morning of August 29, 2005. The article reports that the Coast Guard set Hurricane Condition X-Ray or Condition Three, for affected ports on Saturday, meaning the ports were open for departing vessels, but no vessels were allowed to come into port with the exception of inland barge traffic. (JoC Online, dated 08/29/05, www.joc.com.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recently posted to its Web site its quarterly report on the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) entitled Report to Congress: The Automated Commercial Environment. This report is dated March 31, 2005 and covers the January 1, 2005 - March 31, 2005 period.
The Journal of Commerce reports that in July 2005, Representative Dave Weldon (R-Fla) introduced H.R. 3319, the "Short Sea Shipping Tax Exemption Act of 2005" in order to exempt coastwise container, ferry or roll-on, roll-off traffic moving between U.S. mainland ports from paying the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT, or HMF), which is seen by advocates as one of the major barriers to developing coastwise shipping as an alternative to land freight transport. (JoC, dated 07/25/05, www.joc.com )
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a reminder on the August 30, 2005 opening of the fifth global specialty sugar tariff rate quota (TRQ) for the October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2005 period.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has made a preliminary affirmative antidumping (AD) duty determination that certain orange juice from Brazil is being, or is likely to be, sold in the U.S. at less than fair value.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its weekly quota commodity report as of August 22, 2005. This report includes tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa powder, tobacco, certain JFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, UAFTA and UCFTA TRQs, etc. This report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, CBTPA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA (CFTA) tariff preference levels (TPLs) for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly quota commodity report, dated 08/22/05, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
According to a Mexican government DiarioOficial notice, and government and press sources, the Mexican Government has imposed retaliatory duties on certain U.S. products in certain Mexican Harmonized System (HS) codes in light of the U.S.' failure to repeal the Byrd Amendment.