The Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) held a quarterly meeting on February 6, 2004 in Washington, DC to discuss, and receive updates from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials on, various customs and trade issues.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued electronic bulletin board (CEBB) messages which contain new instructions from the International Trade Administration (ITA) on accepting blanket certifications for certain exclusions from the countervailing (CV) duty order on dynamic random access memory semiconductors (DRAMS) from South Korea (C-580-851).
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has issued a notice announcing that the U.S. and Vietnam have amended the existing U.S.-Vietnam textile and apparel visa arrangement in order to implement the Electronic Visa Information System (ELVIS) for textiles and apparel that are subject to quota limits, that are produced or manufactured in Vietnam and exported on or after March 22, 2004.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued two administrative messages stating that, effective February 23, 2004, the filing of U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement (UCFTA) and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SFTA) claims via the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) system is now available for the tariff preference levels (TPLs) for textiles and/or apparel and the tariff rate quotas (TRQs) for agricultural products.
In the February 18, 2004 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (CBP Bulletin) (Vol. 38, No. 8), CBP issued notices: (a) proposing to revoke a ruling regarding the country of origin marking for flat flexible magnets, and (b) proposing to modify a classification ruling on a certain woven paper place mat. CBP states that it is also proposing to revoke or modify any treatment it has previously accorded to substantially identical transactions that are contrary to its position in these notices.
According to The Journal of Commerce (JoC), rules of origin under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are so complex that many companies are forgoing NAFTA benefits, as they feel that the duty savings under NAFTA are not worth all the effort of compliance, such as obtaining manufacturers' affidavits from each supplier. (JoC, dated 02/16/04-02/22/04, www.joc.com)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced that the Automated Commercial System (ACS) has been updated to accept U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement (UCFTA) and U.S-Singapore FTA (SFTA) claims through the Automated Broker Interface (ABI), effective February 23, 2004.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice announcing the product petitions that have been accepted for further review in the 2003 Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Annual Review.
CIT Rules in Favor of CBP's Classification of Frozen, Unbaked Danish. In Schulstad USA, Inc. v. U.S., the Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled in favor of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) finding that certain frozen, unbaked danish products were properly classified under HTS 1901.90.90 (6.4%) as other food preparations of flour, etc., not elsewhere specified or included.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recently posted to its Web site certain new Trade Support Network (TSN) committee Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) user requirement recommendations.