In the December 13, 2006 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (CBP Bulletin) (Vol. 40, No. 51), CBP published a notice proposing to revoke two classification rulings as follows:
CBP CROSS Rulings
CBP issues binding advance rulings in connection with the importation of merchandise into the United States. They issue the rulings to give the trade community transparency of how CBP will treat a prospective import or carrier transaction. Common rulings include the tariff classification, country of origin, or free trade agreement applicability of merchandise, among other things. These rulings are available in CBP's Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) database.
The U.S. is preparing to implement hundreds of tariff changes in the 2007 U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) in order to conform U.S. law to international Harmonized System (HS) nomenclature changes recommended for adoption by the World Customs Organization (WCO), and to certain Harmonized System Committee (HSC) decisions necessary to ensure uniform application of the nomenclature ("WCO changes").
The Treasury Department (Treasury) has published its semi-annual regulatory agenda, which contains certain U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulatory rulemakings.
According to sources at the Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division, the final rule on the mandatory filing of export information in the Automated Export System (AES) is still delayed.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted separate notices to its Web site which list the calendar year 2007 Tariff Preference Levels (TPLs) for certain textiles and apparel from Canada or Mexico. These 2007 TPLs are set at the same levels as the 2006 TPL levels.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published its semi-annual regulatory agenda, which contains certain U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulatory rulemakings.
CBP has posted to its Web site a notice announcing the 2007 tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for the exported products provided for under the U.S. Jordan FTA in HTS Chapter 99, Subchapter IX, Notes 3, 4, 5, and 6 listed below:
According to The Journal of Commerce, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Basham stated at CBP's 7th Annual Trade Symposium that the agency intends to implement rules requiring importers to provide additional data to identify high-risk ocean shipments - the 10 2 data - by the end of summer 2007. Basham stated that Customs is not going to implement all the data requirements at once, but will phase them in to minimize their impact. (JoC, dated 12/14/06, available at www.joc.com )
The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a notice requesting information on the efforts of certain countries to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. DOL explains that this information will be used in the preparation of the sixth annual report on certain trade beneficiary countries' implementation of international commitments to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. Information should be submitted by 5 p.m. on December 22, 2006 (FR Pub 12/05/06, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-20561.pdf.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a "strawman proposal"1 entitled "CBP Proposal for Advance Trade Data Elements", in order to facilitate its development of regulations to collect 10 additional commercial shipping data elements from importers or their agents and 2 additional data sets from ocean carriers. CBP's proposal is commonly referred to as ten plus two (10+2).