The International Trade Commission posted the 2018 Basic Edition of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The new HTS implements the reinstatement of Argentina into the Generalized System of Preferences, as well as The Gambia and Swaziland as African Growth and Opportunity Act beneficiaries. New statistical suffixes are also added for organic lemons, gift wrap ribbons and bows, and metal bed bases, among others. Most of the changes took effect Jan. 1.
Harmonized Tariff Schedule
The Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) provide classification provisions and duty rates for almost every item that exists. It is a system of classifying and taxing all goods imported into the United States. The HTS is based on the international Harmonized System, which is a global standard for naming and describing trade products, and consists of a hierarchical structure that assigns a specific code and rate to each type of merchandise for duty, quota, and statistical purposes. The HTS was made effective on January 1, 1989, replacing the former Tariff Schedules of the United States. It is maintained by the U.S. International Trade Commission, but CBP is responsible for interpreting and enforcing the HTS.
President Donald Trump directed the revocation of certain Generalized System of Preferences for Ukraine, added Argentina to GSP eligibility, and added The Gambia and Swaziland to African Growth and Opportunity Act eligibility in a proclamation on Dec. 22. The suspension of certain Ukrainian GSP benefits will take effect 120 days after the proclamation’s publication in the Federal Register. Argentina’s addition to GSP eligibility will take effect Jan. 1. Former President Barack Obama terminated Argentina’s GSP benefits in 2012 (see 12032738), and The Gambia’s and Swaziland’s AGOA benefits in 2014 (see 14062706 and 1412230060).
ATLANTA -- CBP is looking at options to create a “foreign entity ID” to replace the manufacturer ID it currently requires on entry documentation, said Jeff Nii, director of CBP’s interagency collaboration division, at the East Coast Trade Symposium on Dec. 6. Alongside its counterparts on the Border Interagency Executive Council (BIEC), the agency is looking into several options, including working with a non-profit standards organizations and creating the IDs on its own, prioritizing low cost in the hopes that the entity ID system garners worldwide adoption. The BIEC, which is currently finalizing its own operating procedures, will also soon begin consideration of product sub-identifiers that would provide more detail than currently allowed by the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, Nii said.
Fiber optic telecommunications network equipment is classifiable as optical instruments of chapter 90 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), the Court of International Trade said in an Oct. 18 decision. ADC Telecommunications argued CBP should have classified its “value added modules” as data transmission equipment in a duty fee provision of heading 8517. But CIT held that optical equipment includes fiber optic cables that transmit non-visible light, confirming CBP’s liquidation as “other optical appliances and instruments” in heading 9013.
Titanium Metals Corporation (TIMET) filed a petition on Aug. 24 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping and countervailing duties on titanium sponge from Kazakhstan, and new antidumping duties on titanium sponge from Japan. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on titanium sponge that could eventually result in the assessment of AD/CV duties.
A coalition of domestic manufacturers filed a petition on Aug. 16 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping and countervailing duties on stainless steel flanges from China and India. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on stainless steel flanges that could eventually result in the assessment of AD/CV duties. The coalition that requested the duties, known as the Coalition of American Flange Producers, includes as individual members Maass Flange Corporation and Core Pipe Products.
House and Senate lawmakers introduced companion legislation that would eliminate tariffs on 69 recreational outerwear goods. The Senate version, introduced Aug. 2 by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., includes language that would impose, for 10 years, a 1.5 percent fee upon the imports’ entry, or withdrawal from warehouse for consumption, payable to the Treasury. That fee wouldn’t apply to imports of recreational performance outerwear from any U.S. free trade agreement partner, Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act beneficiary country, or African Growth and Opportunity Act beneficiary country. House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., introduced the House version of the legislation on Aug. 4.
The International Trade Commission on July 1 posted revisions to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (here). The new HTS implements the results of the U.S. Trade Representative's 2016-17 review of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), adding several "travel goods" to the program for all GSP beneficiaries. The ITC is also implementing the second round of tariff cuts under the expanded World Trade Organization Information Technology Agreement, adding new tariff numbers for a variety of products, including cuts of beef, and removing outdated classification provisions for jadeite and rubies. All changes take effect July 1, unless otherwise specified.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is authorizing tariff benefits for travel goods in Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) subheading 4202 under the Generalized System of Preferences, USTR said (see 1706290053). “According to the information provided in the course of USTR’s review, making travel goods GSP-eligible for all GSP beneficiaries is expected to be neutral with respect to overall U.S. import levels, and therefore also to the U.S. trade balance, though this action may shift some of the overseas production of these products from non-GSP countries to GSP countries,” USTR said in a statement. The White House also released a presidential proclamation on GSP and other duty-free treatment (here).
Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., introduced a bill on May 25 that would qualify footwear classified in over 20 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) subheadings in Chapter 64 for Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) treatment for the first time in the program’s more than 40-year history. The legislation, H.R. 2735, would also require the executive branch to conduct six annual studies of the state of the U.S. footwear industry, focusing on yearly changes to categories of domestic footwear. The bill would require the International Trade Commission to inform that report by examining current production of "like or directly competitive articles" and to identify any articles for which domestic production is likely to occur within the next year at a commercial level.