21.
U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Area Agreement (JFTA)
The United States-Jordan Free Trade Area agreement went into effect on December 17, 2001, and provides for the elimination of tariffs on almost all qualifying goods within 10 years.
Eligible Items
JFTA benefits apply to tariff items listed in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule and identified by “JO” in the Special column.
Eligibility Requirements, General
Drawback is a refund of monies⎯customs duties, certain internal revenue taxes and other fees⎯that were lawfully collected at the time of importation. The Continental Congress established drawback in 1789 to create jobs in the new United States and to encourage manufacturing and exporting.
For drawback to be paid, the imported merchandise must be exported or destroyed under CBP supervision after importation.
Types Of Drawback
Antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CVD) duties are additional duties that may be assessed on imported goods intended for sale in the United States at abnormally low prices. These low prices are the result of unfair foreign trade practices that give some imports an unearned advantage over competing U.S. goods.
The U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement (US-CFTA) took effect January 1, 2004, with the enactment of the US-CFTA Implementation Act (P. L.108-77; 117 Stat. 909). (Presidential Proclamation 7746, the official announcement of US-CFTA, incorporates by reference Publication 3652 of the U.S. International Trade Commission. Publication 3652 amends the Harmonized Tariff Schedule by adding General Note 26, which implements the duty provisions of the US-CFTA. Title 19, Code of Federal Regulations is being amended to implement the US CFTA.)
22.
Compact of Free Association (FAS)
FAS is a program providing for the duty-free entry of certain merchandise from designated freely associated states. (U.S. Pub. Law 99-239, Compact of Free Assoc. Act of 1985, 48 USC 1681 note. 59 Stat. 1031 and amended Dec. 17, 2003 by House Jt. Res. 63; U.S. Pub. Law 180-188)
The Compact of Free Association between the Federated States of Micronesia and the United States was initialed by negotiators in 1980 and signed in 1982. The Compact was approved by the citizens of the FSM in a plebiscite held in 1983. Legislation on the Compact was adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1986, and signed into law on November 13, 1986.
The United States-Israel Free Trade Area agreement was originally enacted to provide for duty-free treatment for merchandise produced in Israel to stimulate trade between the two countries. This program was authorized by the United States in the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984, became effective September 1, 1985, and has no termination date. The Harmonized Tariff Schedule was amended to include General Note 8 implementing the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Area Implementation Act.
The Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) provides for the duty-free entry of certain merchandise from designated beneficiary countries. The United States enacted ATPA into law on December 4, 1991, and it expired on December 4, 2001. When the Trade Act of 2002 became law on December 4, 2001, it renewed ATPA through December 31, 2006, and introduced the new Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) provision. ATPDEA expanded some trade benefits for textiles from ATPA beneficiary countries.
Beneficiary Countries
The Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) is a program that allows duty-free entry of certain merchandise from designated beneficiary countries or territories. This program was enacted by the United States as the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, (CBERA) which became effective January 1, 1984, and has no expiration date.
Beneficiary Countries
The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is a preferential program that provides duty-free treatment to products of beneficiary designated countries and territories. The program was authorized by the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2461 et seq.) as a means of promoting economic development in the developing countries and was instituted on January 1, 1976. The GSP periodically expires and must be renewed by Congress to remain in effect. CBP provides the trade community with notification of these expirations and renewals.
The provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were adopted by the United States with enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act of 1993 (107 Stat. 2057, P.L. 103-182). Nineteen Code of Federal Regulation (19 CFR) Parts 10, 12, 123, 134, 162, 174, 177, and 178 were amended, and new parts 102 and 181 of the CBP Regulations were developed to implement NAFTA’s duty provisions.
NAFTA phased out tariffs on almost all “originating” goods traded between Canada and the United States by January 1, 2003, and provides for an additional 5-year phase-out period on certain sensitive commodities traded between Mexico and the United States.
Goods of the types enumerated below, when not imported for sale or for sale on approval, may be admitted into the United States under bond, without the payment of duty, for exportation within one year from the date of importation. Generally, the amount of the bond is double the estimated duties. The one-year period for exportation may, upon application to the port director, be extended for one or more further periods which, when added to the initial one year, shall not exceed a total of three years. There is an exception in the case of articles covered in item 14: the period of the bond may not exceed six months and may not be extended.
CBP designates such items as lift vans, cargo vans, shipping tanks, pallets and certain articles used to ship goods internationally as instruments of international traffic. So long as this designation applies, these articles are not subject to entry or duty when they arrive, whether they are loaded or empty. Other classes of merchandise containers may also be designated as instruments of international traffic upon application to the Commissioner of CBP for such a designation. If any article so designated is diverted to domestic use, however, it must be entered and duty paid, if applicable.
ASSESSMENT OF DUTY
All goods imported into the United States are subject to duty or duty-free entry in accordance with their classification under the applicable items in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. An annotated loose-leaf edition of the tariff schedule may be purchased from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. (See 19 U.S.C. 1202.)
When goods are dutiable, ad valorem, specific, or compound rates may be assessed. An ad valorem rate, which is the type of rate most often applied, is a percentage of the value of the merchandise, such as five percent ad valorem. A specific rate is a specified amount per unit of weight or other quantity, such as 5.9 cents per dozen. A compound rate is a combination of both an ad valorem rate and a specific rate, such as 0.7 cents per kilo plus 10 percent ad valorem.
A commercial invoice, signed by the seller or shipper, or his agent, is acceptable for CBP purposes if it is prepared in accordance with Section 141.86 through 141.89 of the CBP Regulations, and in the manner customary for a commercial transaction involving goods of the kind covered by the invoice. Importers and brokers participating in the Automated Broker Interface may elect to transmit invoice data via the Automated Invoice Interface or EDIFACT and eliminate the paper document. The invoice must provide the following information, as required by the Tariff Act:
Of primary interest to the trade community is the compliance assessment, which is the systematic evaluation of an importer’s systems supporting his or her CBP-related operations. The assessment includes testing import and financial transactions, reviewing
the adequacy of the importer’s internal controls, and determining the importer’s compliance levels in key areas. Compliance assessments are conducted in accordance with 19 U.S.C. 1509.
Reasonable care is an explicit responsibility on the part of the importer. Despite its seemingly simple connotation, the term reasonable care defies easy explanation because the facts and circumstances surrounding every import transaction differ, from the experience of the importer to the nature of the imported articles. Consequently, neither CBP nor the importing community can develop a reasonable care checklist capable of covering every import transaction.
CBP recommends that the import community examine the list of questions below. These questions may suggest methods that importers may find useful in avoiding compliance problems and in meeting the responsibilities of reasonable care.
Informed compliance is a shared responsibility between CBP and the import community wherein CBP effectively communicates its requirements to the trade, and the people and businesses subject to those requirements conduct their regulated activities in accordance with U.S. laws and regulations. A key component of informed compliance is that the importer is expected to exercise reasonable care in his or her importing operations.
Merchandise arriving in the United States by commercial carrier must be entered by the owner, purchaser, his or her authorized regular employee, or by the licensed customs broker designated by the owner, purchaser, or consignee. U.S. CBP officers and employees are not authorized to act as agents for importers or forwarders of imported merchandise, although they may give all reasonable advice and assistance to inexperienced importers.