The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has issued a notice announcing the eleven product and seven country practice petitions that are accepted for further review in the 2007 Generalized System of Preferences Annual Review, and setting forth the schedule for comments and public hearings on these petitions.
Harmonized Tariff Schedule
The Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) is a reference manual that provides duty rates for almost every item that exists. It is a system of classifying and taxing all goods imported into the United States. The HTS is based on the international Harmonized System, which is a global standard for naming and describing trade products, and consists of a hierarchical structure that assigns a specific code and rate to each type of merchandise for duty, quota, and statistical purposes. The HTS was made effective on January 1, 1989, replacing the former Tariff Schedules of the United States. It is maintained by the U.S. International Trade Commission, but the Customs and Border Protection of the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for interpreting and enforcing the HTS.
As a result of recent reviews, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued two reminders on tariff rate quota agricultural products for (1) exemptions under Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) General Note (GN) 15 and (2) over-quota safeguards under HTS heading 9904.
The International Trade Administration has issued a notice soliciting applications from persons1 who cut and sew men's and boys' worsted wool suits, suit-like jackets, and trousers in the U.S. for an allocation of the 2008 tariff rate quotas on certain worsted wool fabric.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of September 4, 2007. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, tobacco, certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs, etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA 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 09/04/07, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI administrative message to advise the trade of the ABI system requirements for reporting the license number for certain imports of cotton shirting fabric eligible for duty-free entry pursuant to Section 406 of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (Act, Public Law 109-432).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site a frequently asked question document regarding Automated Commercial Environment Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) A1.
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements has issued a notice of its decision, on its own initiative, to consider whether imports of certain Honduran cotton, wool, and man-made fiber socks and hosiery (socks) (merged Category 332/432 and 632 part) should be subject to possible safeguard actions under the U.S.-Dominican-Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) .
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has issued a press release announcing its country-specific in-quota allocations under the tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on imported raw cane sugar, refined and specialty sugar, and sugar-containing products for fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a general notice announcing that effective August 20, 2007, it has expanded the processes that are supported in the Automated Commercial Environment e-Manifest: Truck system.
MSNBC reports that Mattel Inc. has recalled about 9 million more Chinese-made toys from the U.S. market which may contain lead paint or magnets that children could inhale or swallow, just two weeks after it recalled 1.5 million toys made in China for its Fisher Price unit because of their lead paint hazard. Mattel stated that the problem was discovered as part of a wide-scale investigation into all of its Chinese factories following the discovery of the Fisher-Price lead paint problem. (MSNBC article, including a list of the recalled toys, dated 08/15/07, available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20274625/)