U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued to the ports and posted to its Web site instructions regarding (1) the use of visas to make claims for duty-free treatment under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for qualifying textile and/or apparel articles (textile articles) from Chad that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after April 26, 2006, and (2) quota reporting for certain apparel articles from Chad that are subject to the AGOA aggregate tariff preference level (TPL or Cap) and its sublimit.
Customs duty
A customs duty is a tariff or tax which a country imposes on goods when they are transported across international borders. Customs Duties are used to protect countries' economies, residents, jobs, and environments, by limiting the flow of imported merchandise, especially restricted and prohibited goods, into the country. The Customs duty rate is a percentage determined by the value of the article purchased in the foreign country and not based on quality, size, or weight. U.S. customs duties are listed in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has published a notice, effective April 28, 2006, setting forth the procedures it will follow in considering requests from the public for the imposition of duty rate safeguard actions on Australia Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) textiles and apparel.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice announcing its determination that Chad: (1) has adopted an effective visa system and related procedures to prevent unlawful transshipment and the use of counterfeit documents in connection with shipments of textile and apparel articles, and (2) has implemented and follows, or is making substantial progress toward implementing and following, the customs procedures required by the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
On April 21, 2006, the leadership of the Senate Finance Committee issued a "Dear Colleague" letter announcing that Senators who are interested in introducing bills for potential inclusion in a miscellaneous tariff bill (MTB) should do so by May 26, 2006.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted guidance on the Israel and Jordan free trade agreements (FTAs) and the U.S.-Israel FTA Qualified Industrial Zone (QIZ) programs with Jordan and Egypt that it provides to field Import Specialists.
CBP has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that its most recent changes to the 20006 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records, Harmonized System (HS) Update (No. 0602) contains changes with respect to:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memorandum which contains instructions on the retroactive application of the preferential tariff provisions1 of the U.S. - Dominican Republic - Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) to qualifying textile or apparel goods of eligible DR-CAFTA countries that were entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after January 1, 2004 and before April 1, 2006, the DR-CAFTA's effective date for Nicaragua and Honduras.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a press release announcing that on April 12, 2006, the U.S. and Peru signed the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a Customs Bulletin notice advising interested parties that, effective April 5, 2006, CBP is limiting the application of the decisions of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) and the Court of International Trade (CIT) in Park B. Smith Ltd. vs. U.S. (Park) to the specific cotton woven table linen and cotton woven dhurry rug entries before the courts in that litigation.1
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a courtesy memo to the field and trade announcing that the CAFTA-DR tariff rate quota (TRQ) for El Salvador sugar and sugar containing products, which opened on March 29, 2006, filled on March 31, 2006 at 3:41 p.m.