In the November 2, 2011 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (Vol. 45, No. 45), CBP published a notice that proposes to modify or revoke two rulings and similar treatment regarding the classification of certain gas generators.

In the November 2, 2011 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (Vol. 45, No. 45), CBP published a notice on its revocation of one ruling and similar treatment regarding the tariff classification of a self-propelled utility vehicle.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection states that a new release of the C-TPAT Portal (Adjusted Scorecard Post Response) was to deploy on November 12, 2011. Key points include giving the trade credit for response actions, rewriting the validation response page to differentiate treatment of (i) actions required and (ii) recommendations for an adjusted score, and asking partners if they implemented a recommendation or not.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS notice that contains the draft Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) Chapter and message set for CBP's test of the simplified entry capability in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). CBP states that it should be noted that this chapter/message set is in draft form, and it does not reflect a final document. The draft CATAIR Chapter/Message Set is available here. Sample CATAIR message is available here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum announcing that the 2012 tariff rate quota for chocolate provided for in Chapter 18, Additional U.S. Note 2 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule will open on January 3, 2012. The aggregate low-duty quantity is 26,167,700 kg with the below-listed countries having the following minimum access amounts:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum announcing that the 2012 tariff rate quota for butter and fresh or sour cream provided for in Chapter 4, Additional U.S. Note 6 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule will open on January 3, 2012 with a low-duty quantity of 6,977,000 kg. Imports described in HTS Chapter 4, Additional U.S. Note 6 are subject to agriculture licensing.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum announcing that the 2012 tariff rate quota for butter substitutes provided for in Chapter 4, Additional U.S. Note 14 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule will open on January 3, 2012 with a low-duty quantity of 6,080,500 kg. Imports described in HTS Chapter 4, Additional U.S. Note 14 are subject to agriculture licensing.

This summary report highlights the most active textile and apparel tariff preference levels¹ from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s “Quota Weekly Commodity Status Report.” It also lists the TRQ commodities on CBP’s weekly “TRQ/TPL Threshold to Fill List.” Note that the fiscal year 2012 commodity TRQs reopened for a new quota period on October 1, 2011, as did the TPLs for the CBTPA.

In the November 2, 2011 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (Vol. 45, No. 45), CBP published two notices that propose to revoke five rulings and similar treatment regarding the tariff classification of a light-emitting diode (LED) backlight and certain LED lamps.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection and has issued the following news releases: