House Passes Conference Version of Miscellaneous Trade Bill (Senate Expected to Consider Bill in November)
On October 8, 2004, the House of Representatives passed the conference version of H.R. 1047, the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2004. According to Congressional sources, the Senate is expected to consider the conference version of H.R. 1047 in mid-November 2004, when it returns after the election.
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This is Part I of a multi-part series of summaries on the conference version of H.R. 1047. Part I provides a list of the legislation's provisions, in the order presented in the legislative text. See future issues of ITT for additional summaries on the conference version of H.R. 1047 (these future summaries will not necessarily address the bill's provisions in the same order as presented below).
The following is a list of the provisions included in the House-passed conference version of H.R. 1047:
Title I - Tariff Provisions
Subtitle A - Temporary Duty Suspensions and Reductions
Chapter 1 - New duty suspensions and reductions
Chapter 2 - Extension of existing duty suspensions and reductions
Subtitle B - Other Tariff Provisions
Chapter 1 - Liquidation or Reliquidation of Certain Entries
Provisions providing for the liquidation of certain entries (e.g., tramway cars, cotton gloves, posters, 13-inch televisions, certain drawback claims, certain entries prematurely liquidated in error, tomato sauce preparations, etc.)
Chapter 2 - Miscellaneous Provisions
Hair Clippers
Tractor body parts
Flexible magnets and composite goods containing flexible magnets
Vessel repair duties
Duty-free treatment for hand-knotted or hand-woven carpets
Duty drawback for certain articles
Unused merchandise drawback
Treatment of certain footwear under Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act
Designation of San Antonio International Airport for customs processing of certain private aircraft arriving in the U.S.
Authority for establishment of integrated border inspection areas at the U.S.-Canada border
Designation of foreign law enforcement officers
Amendments to the U.S. insular possession program
Modification of provisions relating to drawback claims
Title II - Other Trade Provisions
Subtitle A - Miscellaneous Provisions
Termination of application of title IV of the Trade Act of 1974 to Armenia
Modification to cellar treatment of natural wine
Articles eligible for preferential treatment under the Andean Trade Preference Act
Technical amendments
Extension of normal trade relations to Laos
Repeal of antidumping provision of Revenue Act of 1916
Subtitle B - Technical amendments relating to entry and protest:
Entry of merchandise
Limitation on liquidations
Protests
Review of protests
Refunds and errors
Definitions and miscellaneous provisions
Voluntary reliquidations
Effective date
Subtitle C - Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
USTR determinations in TRIPS Agreement investigations
Title III - Iraqi Cultural Antiquities
Emergency implementation of import restrictions
Termination of authority
Title IV - Wool Trust Fund
Extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products, wool research fund, wool duty refunds
Title V - Reference to Customs Service
Reference to Customs Service
these provisions were not included in either the House or Senate versions of H.R. 1047, but were newly added to the conference version of H.R. 1047, which was subsequently passed by the House.
(On March 4, 2004, the Senate originally passed its version of H.R. 1047. The House passed its most recent version of the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2003 on November 20, 2003, as part of H.R. 3521, the "Tax Relief Extension Act of 2003. The House has previously passed its own version of H.R. 1047 on March 5, 2003. As the House and Senate passed different versions of H.R. 1047, a conference was held to resolve the differences.)
(See ITT's Online Archives or 05/03/04 news, 04050315, for the final part of BP's multi-part series of summaries on the Senate-passed version of H.R. 1047, which contains links to previous parts of the series. See ITT's Online Archives or 03/27/03 news, 03032710, for the final part of BP's multi-part series of summaries on the House-passed version of H.R. 1047, which contains links to previous parts of the series.)
Legislative text of the Conference version of H.R. 1047 available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/hr1047/HR1047confreptlegtext.pdf.
Joint explanatory statement of the conference committee regarding H.R. 1047 available at
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/hr1047/hr1047confreptexplanstatement.pdf.