International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 15-19 in case they were missed.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 8-12 in case they were missed.
Any importers that have “reason to believe” they have not been refunded duties paid due to the recent lapse of the Generalized System of Preferences program should contact Randy Mitchell at randy.mitchell@cbp.dhs.gov to inquire about their case, a CBP spokeswoman said. The agency recently said it has completed the processing of refunds of duties paid during the two-year lapse of GSP prior to its renewal in 2015, refunding approximately $1.31 billion in duties (see 1608080023).
More than 100 industry organizations, ranging from broker associations to textile manufacturers, directly appealed to President Barack Obama to reconsider his decision to defer approval of duty benefits for 27 travel goods imported from many countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (here). In a letter signed by groups including the Express Association of America, the U.S. Fashion Industry Association and the Pacific Coast Council of Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders, companies and industry associations called on Obama to decide to apply duty-free approvals for the goods “definitely no later” than Oct. 1, to boost development before GSP expires at the end of 2017. “Deferring a decision to make eligible all GSP countries for travel goods, which include backpacks, purses, suitcases, and laptop cases, creates business uncertainty and delays the investment that will create and support jobs in developing countries as well as jobs here at home," the letter said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 1-5 in case they were missed.
CBP has completed the processing of refunds of duties paid during the two-year lapse in the General System of Preferences program prior to its renewal in 2015, a CBP spokeswoman said. The agency refunded approximately $1.31 billion in duties paid on goods that would have been GSP-eligible if the program had not expired. Processing was completed in two phases, with CBP automatically refunding duties paid on entries that included the GSP special program indicator (SPI) in phase one, then moving to the remaining 2 percent of entry summaries with special indicators that "could not be scripted" (see 1507210023). CBP also accepted written duty refund requests. President Barack Obama retroactively renewed GSP in June 2015 (see 1506290045).
Protests may be filed to claim Generalized System of Preferences benefits, the Court of International Trade said in an Aug. 4 decision (here) that appears to contradict current CBP policy. Though it dismissed an importer’s challenge on a technicality, the court found flaws with the basis of CBP’s 2014 directive that ports no longer accept protests used to claim GSP duty-free treatment post-liquidation (see 14081320). CIT “essentially ruled that the government was wrong in taking the position that GSP claims cannot be raised in a protest,” said John Peterson of Neville Peterson, who represented the importer, Zojirushi America.
The International Trade Commission on July 28 released a report (here) on recommended changes to Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) chapters 03, 44 and 63 that are necessary to implement amendments to the Harmonized System (HS) adopted by the World Customs Organization in 2015 (see 1506230026), it said (here). Unintentionally omitted from the WCO’s tariff changes set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2017 (see 14073002 and 14073101), the amendments to Chapter 44 introduce new subdivisions for coniferous and non-coniferous wood and new subheadings for certain wood of pine, fir, spruce, beech, birch, poplar, aspen and eucalyptus. These amendments to subheadings of headings 4401, 4403, 4406, 4407 and 4412 would take effect in 2018.
A bipartisan group of 14 members of Congress urged the Obama administration to proclaim duty-free benefits for 27 travel goods for all Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) beneficiary countries, after the government deferred GSP eligibility petitions for the products June 30. “As supporters of the GSP program and its congressionally mandated purpose of spurring development through trade and investment while also enhancing the competitiveness of U.S. companies, we are very disappointed with the decision to defer a determination on travel goods eligibility for all GSP countries,” the lawmakers said in a July 27 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. Continued inaction hampers the economic development of GSP-eligible countries, including economic and strategic U.S. allies, the lawmakers said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 5-8 in case they were missed.