The U.S. is preparing to implement hundreds of tariff changes in the 2007 U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) in order to conform U.S. law to international Harmonized System (HS) nomenclature changes recommended for adoption by the World Customs Organization (WCO), and to certain Harmonized System Committee (HSC) decisions necessary to ensure uniform application of the nomenclature ("WCO changes").
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.
According to The Journal of Commerce, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Basham stated at CBP's 7th Annual Trade Symposium that the agency intends to implement rules requiring importers to provide additional data to identify high-risk ocean shipments - the 10 2 data - by the end of summer 2007. Basham stated that Customs is not going to implement all the data requirements at once, but will phase them in to minimize their impact. (JoC, dated 12/14/06, available at www.joc.com )
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a "strawman proposal"1 entitled "CBP Proposal for Advance Trade Data Elements", in order to facilitate its development of regulations to collect 10 additional commercial shipping data elements from importers or their agents and 2 additional data sets from ocean carriers. CBP's proposal is commonly referred to as ten plus two (10+2).
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has posted a notice announcing that effective January 1, 2007, the ITC will post to its Web site an electronic version of the 2007 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS).
The U.S. is preparing to implement hundreds of tariff changes in the 2007 U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) in order to conform U.S. law to international Harmonized System (HS) nomenclature changes recommended for adoption by the World Customs Organization (WCO), and to certain Harmonized System Committee (HSC) decisions necessary to ensure uniform application of the nomenclature, etc.
CBP has issued an ABI administrative message stating that the port of Chicago offered limited services on December 1, 2006 due to inclement weather. CBP states that it is granting all filers filing entry on December 1 a snow day. CBP adds that it is extending one additional day without penalty for the filing of payment of entry summaries due on that day. (CBP Adm: 06-1201, dated 12/04/06, available at http://www.brokerpower.com/cgi-bin/adminsearch/admmsg.view.pl?article=2006/2006-1201.ADM)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a document entitled "Electronic Invoice Processing (EIP)/Remote Location Filing (RLF) Invoice Requirements" in an effort to improve the quality of data being reported on invoice transmissions.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated antidumping (AD) duty investigations and countervailing (CV) duty investigations of coated free sheet paper from Indonesia, China and Korea.
On July 27, 2006, President Bush issued Proclamation 8039 to implement the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (BFTA), and for other purposes (e.g. certain technical changes, an apparel modification for the Singapore FTA, etc.)
The U.S. is preparing to implement hundreds of tariff changes in the 2007 U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) in order to conform U.S. law to international Harmonized System (HS) nomenclature changes recommended for adoption by the World Customs Organization (WCO), and certain Harmonized System Committee (HSC) decisions necessary to ensure uniform application of the nomenclature, etc.