President Barack Obama added South Sudan as an African Growth and Opportunity Act beneficiary, and removed Mali and Guinea-Bissau as AGOA beneficiaries, in Presidential Proclamation 8921, signed Dec. 20. The proclamation also removes St. Kitts and Nevis as a Generalized System of Preferences beneficiary, extends duty-free treatment for some Israeli agricultural goods pursuant to the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement (USIFTA), and makes technical corrections and conforming changes to Harmonized Tariff Schedule provisions for U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement (USCFTA) rules of origin, the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KFTA), and GSP ineligible country-product pairs. Most of the HTS changes are effective Jan. 1.
In the Dec. 17-19 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union, the following trade-related notices were posted:
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) hopes to see movement on two major pieces of customs-related legislation by the end of the year, he said at the CBP East Coast Trade Symposium Nov. 27. Brady hopes to introduce a customs reauthorization bill this year and expects a miscellaneous tariff bill (MTB) “shortly,” he said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said import statistics are available for the first eight months of 2012 relating to competitive need limitations (CNLs) under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. The statistics identify some articles for which the 2012 trade levels may exceed statutory CNLs, it said in a Federal Register notice scheduled for Nov. 6. USTR said parties may want to use the information in deciding whether to submit a petition to waive the CNLs for individual beneficiary developing countries (BDCs) with respect to specific GSP-eligible articles. The deadline for submitting product petitions to waive the CNLs for individual BDCs with respect to GSP-eligible articles is 5 p.m., Nov. 21. The interim import statistics for the first eight months of 2012 relating to CNLs are (here). Full calendar-year 2012 data for individual tariff subheadings will be available in February 2013 at http://dataweb.usitc.gov/. USTR said the following products met the criteria to be placed on the list:
The European Union issued the following trade-related releases Oct. 31-November 1 (notices of most significance will be given separate headlines):
The International Trade Commission posted Revision 1 to Supplement 1 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to implement the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement, and correct and modify other tariff provisions. The new HTS is effective Oct. 31. The proclamation and annexes have not been published yet, so effective dates for many of the revisions are unknown.
The EU revised its import preference system, known as the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP), for developing countries most in need, the European Commission said Oct. 31. The GSP is intended to help developing countries by making it easier to export their products to the EU, it said. The document sets out specific tariff preferences granted under the GSP in the form of reduced or zero tariff rates, as well as the final criteria under which developing economies will benefit, it said.
In the Oct 27-29, 2012 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union, the following trade-related notices were posted:
President Barack Obama issued a proclamation Oct. 30 formally implementing the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement. The government had previously said the agreement would take effect Oct. 31. (See ITT's Online Archives 12102225). International Trade Commission Publication 4349, which will detail changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule authorized by the President’s proclamation, has not yet been released. International Trade Today will provide a detailed summary of the changes upon the Publication’s availability. The proclamation did, however, delegate authority for textile and apparel safeguard and commercial availability provisions of the U.S.-Panama TPA, and previewed the HTS changes that will be coming in ITC Publication 4349.
CBP provided an outline of system requirements for filing claims under the Panama Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA).