Colombia TPA Proclamation and Annexes Published & Effective May 15, Etc.
The President published Proclamation 8818 in the Federal Register which amends the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to implement the U.S.-Colomba Trade Promotion Agreement, effective for goods of Colombia entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after May 15, 2012. The International Trade Commission simultaneously posted the Annexes to the Proclamation which list all of the 2012 and later year amendments to the HTS for this free trade agreement. The Proclamation and Annexes also make corrections to the HTS for certain preference programs and other FTAs.
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Annex I adds a new General Note 34 to the HTS for the Colombia TPA (CTPA). This General Note describes the requirements for goods of Colombia to qualify as "originating" or otherwise qualify for CTPA preferential duty treatment, and is effective for such goods entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after May 15. The annex also lists the Chapter 98-99 changes for the CTPA, including the CTPA tariff rate quotas (TRQs) and certain CTPA textile provisions, among others.
It also deletes Colombia from the list of Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) countries and Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) and Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) countries.
Annex II lists the tariff numbers for CTPA qualifying goods that have a zero (free) or reduced duty rate for goods entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after May 15. Annex II also lists the tariff numbers that refer to various HTS Chapter 99 tariff numbers for their CTPA provisions, among other changes.
In addition, tables in Annex II lists each tariff number and its CTPA duty rates for years 2012 (beginning May 15) through 2026, because not all duty rates go to zero on May 15, but are reduced in stages over a number of years. For some tariff numbers, this staged reduction process is short and only lasts a few years until the duty rate is zero; for others, the staging process lasts until 2026.
(Note that for textiles and apparel, Proclamation 8818 also contains certain authorizations for the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) to take action on textiles and/or apparel regarding (i) fabrics, yarn or fiber not available in commercial quantities in a timely manner, (ii) the denial of entry or CTPA duty treatment, and (iii) the determination of whether certain imports are causing serious damage or threat thereof, to the domestic industry.)
Annex III amend the HTS to indicate that ATPA/ATPDEA expires on July 31, 2013, and that Peru no longer received ATPDEA benefits after December 31, 2010. See future issue of ITT for the details of these changes.
Annex IV makes technical corrections to various HTS provisions for the Oman FTA, NAFTA (Canada and Mexico), and Korea FTA (KORUS). See future issue of ITT for the details of these changes.
(See ITT 12051824 for summary of the instructions U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued on the CTPA. See ITT 12051628 for summary of CBP announcing that ACS and ACE are programmed for the CTPA and that the HS update for it has been issued. )
The Proclamation's companion International Trade Commission publication (No. 4320) containing Annexes I - IV is available here.
Proclamation 8818 (FR Pub 05/18/12)