CBP issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of July 15. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, and tobacco; and certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, OFTA, 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, OFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying textile articles and/or other articles; the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc.
CBP issued a clarification regarding imports from Iran in a CSMS message. Since Sept. 29, 2010, only certain products can be imported lawfully into the U.S. from Iran, said CBP. Those items are:
In the July 3 issue of the Customs Bulletin (Vol. 47, No. 28), CBP published two notices of revocation of rulings and treatment regarding drawback of processed prunes and the classification of valve cable supports.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 8-12 in case they were missed.
While the decision to rescind General System of Preferences (GSP) status for Bangladesh is considered to be largely symbolic, the change is expected to reverberate among the U.S. business community, observers say. Although individual U.S. interests vary depending on scope and scale of specific relationships with Bangladeshi manufacturers, some U.S. importers will likely be forced to foster different manufacturing sources in the coming months. The United States Trade Representative (USTR) decided in late June to rescind GSP status for the South Asian nation (see 13062820) following a series of labor disasters in Bangladesh over the past year, culminating in the April 24 Rana Plaza factory fire that claimed nearly 1,200 lives
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative recognizes the calls and need for transparency in the TTIP negotiation process, said Dan Mullaney, assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and chief U.S. TTIP negotiator, during a press conference July 13. “There is an intense focus on transparency,” he said, calling it “a need we take very seriously.” Mullaney pointed to the opportunities for stakeholder input and engagement as examples of the process’s transparency, as well as the USTR letter to Congress in March notifying legislators of USTR’s objectives going into the negotiations (here). USTR received 370 comments from stakeholders prior to the first round of negotiations and had 350 stakeholders attend stakeholder engagement events during last week’s round, including 50 stakeholders that gave presentations to the negotiators (see 13071113), he said. “We’re working very hard to conduct an open and transparent process.”
In the July 3 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (Vol. 47, No. 28), CBP published two notices of revocation of rulings and treatment regarding drawback of processed prunes and the classification of valve cable supports.
Importers should continue to flag goods that are eligible for Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) beyond the expiration of the program on July 31, said CBP in a CSMS message. The normal duty rate should be paid for GSP goods following the expiration, but continued flagging of the imports will allow CBP to process automatic duty refunds if GSP is renewed with a retroactive clause, the agency said. Importers should use the special program indicator (SPI) A or A+, it said. Both GSP and the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) will expire at the end of the month unless Congress renews them. "No corresponding procedure is available" for the Andean programs. The expiration of GSP won't affect payment of the merchandise processing fee, said CBP.
The use of tracking devices within individual packages imported into the U.S. are not considered to be an accessory of an Instrument of International Traffic (IIT), said CBP in a July 2 ruling, HQ H236467. Therefore, such devices would be subject to entry and any applicable duty payment, said CBP. The ruling came in response to a FedEx request that the agency weigh in on the dutiability of tracking devices in multiple scenarios. The tracking devices are used to provide FedEx with location, temperature, light exposure, humidity and barometric pressure information from within a container or individual package.
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