1. The country of origin must be as “CO”

2. The country of export must be “CO”

3. The FTA claim must contain a tariff number with the special “CO” program indicator

4. HTSUS classifications 9822.08.01 – 9822.08.35 and 9918.02.01 – 9918.24.20 are subject to quotas

5. In order to be exempted from MPF, goods that qualify as originating and have already been classified under a duty free tariff must transmit the country code SPI CO.

6. Cotton or manmade sewing thread must be both formed and finished in either the US or Colombia.  The only exception to this is for manmande fiber staple sewing thread.

7. Knit or woven narrow elastics or “strips” must also be formed and finished in either the US or Colombia.  This is a change from the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act which allowed “strips” to be sourced anywhere as long as they stayed within the 25% value allowance.

8. Yarns and fabrics are subject to a maximum of 10 non originating de minimis provision, except for spandex.  Gimped yarns classified under HTS 5606 do not have to be originating materials.

9. The need to determine if a component is a trimming or a fabric is no longer necessary.  Only the component of garment that meets the tariff shift requirement will determine the classification.  Specific visible linings, narrow elastics, sewing thread and pocketing fabrics will still need to be assessed.

CBP has not yet issued the official message that their system has been updated to accommodate the necessary changes to process claims for preferential treatment.  Importers and exports should wait until CBP released the official announcement to file claims under the FTA.

Additionally, as of today, Colombia is no longer eligible for preferential treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences or the Andean Trade Preference Act.

Mr. Kirk has stated that India has had a formal ban on certain US agricultural products since February 2007.  Supposedly, India enacted the ban to prevent outbreaks of avian flu even though the US has not had an outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of avian flu since 2004.  Additionally, Mr. Kirk the international standards for control of avian flu do not justify imposing import bans.

US trade groups have estimated that if the ban were lifted, the value of poultry exports alone would be in excess of $300 million.

Following this decision, Congress reacted and on March 13, 2012 passed an Amendment to the Tariff Act of 1930 to specifically allow the imposition of such duties.  Text of the Senate bill can be found here.  At the same time, the appellees in the GPX Int’l Tire case had a pending petition for rehearing of the original appeal.

On May 9, 2012, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted the petition for rehearing and issued an order for the US Court of International Trade to examine the constitutionality of the new amendment.

Text of the Appeals Court order can be found here.

1. The country of origin must be as “CO”

2. The country of export must be “CO”

3. The FTA claim must contain a tariff number with the special “CO” program indicator

4. HTSUS classifications 9822.08.01 – 9822.08.35 and 9918.02.01 – 9918.24.20 are subject to quotas

5. In order to be exempted from MPF, goods that qualify as originating and have already been classified under a duty free tariff must transmit the country code SPI CO.

CBP does wish to reiterate that the US-Columbia FTA does not go into effect until May 15, 2012.  Additionally, as of May 15, Columbia will no longer be eligable for duty free treatment under either the Generalized System of Preferences (SPI A) or the Andean Trade Preference Act (SPI J and J+).

Chilean Finance Minister Felipe Larrain stated “We aspire to turn Chile into a free port like Hong Kong and Singapore and we’d be the only country in South America without import duties.”

In addition to eliminating duties, the tax overhaul package would increase the corporate income tax from 18.5% to 20% as well as lower taxes for low and middle income taxpayers, lower tax evasion and raise the tax levied on alcoholic beverages with a higher alcohol content..

In total, the tax overhaul package is expected to increase annual government revenues by $700 million to $1 billion.  The increased revenue will solely be used to fund education initiatives including low interest student loans.

The deadline for introduction of each and every bill for inclusion in the 2012 MTB is today.   The House Ways and Means Committee has listed a deadline of 3:00 this afternoon for bill submission.  However, bills that are submitted on time but cannot be introduced by 3:00 today should be introduced as soon as possible.

So far, there have been hundreds of bills submitted for inclusion in the 2012 MTB. The majority of these bills are in regard to chemicals however numerous other items including electronics, textiles, consumer goods and many other items have been submitted.

H.R. 4395 – Cosmetics Safety Amendments Act of 2012

Introduced on 4/18/2012 by Mr. Leonard Lance (R-NJ), the bill was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The purpose of the bill is to “establish new procedures and requirements for the registration of cosmetic product manufacturing establishments, the submission of cosmetic product and ingredient statements, and the reporting of serious and unexpected cosmetic product adverse events, and for other purposes.”  Additionally, the bill would deny entry to all products classified as cosmetics that do not present the cosmetic establishment registration number and ingredient statement.  Any deficiency in these numbers would also cause entry to be denied.

H.R. 4306 - Captive Primate Safety Act 

The bill was introduced on 3/29/2012 by Mr. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources and the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs.

The purpose of the bill is “To amend the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to prohibit the importation, exportation, transportation, and sale, receipt, acquisition, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce, of any live animal of any prohibited wildlife species, and for other purposes.”

S. 1324 - Captive Primate Safety Act (companion to H.R. 4306)

The bill was introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

H.R. 4318 – To Prohibit The Use, Production, Sale, Importation, or Exportation of Any Pesticide Containing Atrazine.

The bill was introduced on 3/29/2012 by Mr. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and referred to the Committees on Agriculture, on Energy and Commerce, on Ways and Means and on Foreign Affairs.

Additional Considerations by the House Committee on Ways and Means

The Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means has stated that the Committee plans to consider numerous other trade issues this year.  Included on the agenda and sanctions on Burma as well as legislation in relation to the third-country fabric provision of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, improvements to the DR-CAFTA textile sections, PNTR for Moldova and a customs authorization bill.

In addition, the treaty also has updated the format of the Canadian Exemption outlined in ITAR 126.5.

Full text of the treaty may be found in ITAR 126.17 or here.  Please refer to the “Treaties” tab on the DDTC website for more information.

Guide to the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill

CBP has made the following rulings:

A claim should not be denied due to the importer’s failure to provide specific documentation if the port does not request such documentation;

An affidavit of origin is not necessarily an absolute requirement since other documents are acceptable as long as they contain all the necessary information;

The blanket certification of “sold or to be sold” is acceptable, however ports do reserve the right to request proof that sales actually occur;

The use of certain phrases in regard to a type of yarn since this may depend upon the condition of the yard due to th stage of production;

Different tariff classifications may be appropriate depending upon the condition of yard due to its stage of production;

As long as the body of an affidavit is clear, a port may not reject the affidavit for the use of certain phrases in its title;

An affidavit that is signed by someone other than the named person is acceptable as long as the signature is on behalf of the named person and the signature is initialed to specify that it is not that of the named person;

A copy of a notarized affidavit may not be rejected since a copy is sufficient even though the notary stamp indicates that a copy will render the affidavit void;

A classification error at the 10-digit level is not sufficient to reject a claim as it is immaterial in the determination of eligibility;

Typographical do not defeat a claim so long as they are consistent with the rest of the document;

A purchase order with consistent product number and style but lacking fiber content is not a basis for rejection of a claim;

Documents supporting consignment of materials to a third party that is not named in the import are still acceptable so long as the roles of the aprties are explained with sufficient detail to allow the material to be traceable;

Except for a NAFTA certificate, an origin certificate need not be in a specific format, or be on company letterhead as long as all necessary information is present;

When multiple materials are covered by a single document, importers should be sure to identify the relevant materials;

The relationship of all identified parties and documents should be explained for review purposes;

Before denying a claim, CBP should seek either clarification and/or further information if omissions due to oversight or inaccurate language translation(s) are present;

An importer should supply CBP with supporting documentation such as purchase orders, invoices and proof of payment in an affidavit fails to provide the details necessary to confirm the validity of a claim;

Affidavits should be signed, but if they are not, the CBP import specialist should call the official that is noed on the document for verification of the document’s authenticity.

Links to source documents can be found here:

• March 2006
• October 2007
• March 2011
• March 2012