The World Customs Organization published a list of changes in the upcoming 2022 version of the Harmonized System tariff nomenclature, it said in a press release. The 351 sets of amendments include 77 affecting tariff provisions for agriculture, food and tobacco, 58 in the chemical sector, 31 in the wood sector, 21 for textiles, 27 for base metals, 63 in the machinery, electrical and electronic goods sector, and 22 affecting the transport sector, the WCO said. The amendments were recommended by the WCO’s Harmonized System Committee in June, and took effect in January after a six-month period passed with no objections to the proposals by WCO member states (see 2001080064). The changes must be implemented in the tariff schedules of WCO members, including the U.S., by Jan. 1, 2022.
The panel deciding which French products should face Section 301 tariffs was intrigued by a point made by the Cheese Importers Association of America -- who could pay more on 21 Harmonized Tariff Schedule headings if all the proposed tariffs are included.
The contracting parties to the Harmonized System Convention approved the 2022 edition of the Harmonized System, the World Customs Organization said in a news release. “The HS serves as the basis for Customs tariffs and for the compilation of international trade statistics in 211 economies (of which 158 are Contracting Parties to the HS Convention),” it said. The new HS2022, which comes into force Jan. 1, 2022, “makes some major changes to the Harmonized System with a total of 351 sets of amendments covering a wide range of goods moving across borders,” the WCO said.
Starting Jan. 1, “'X - No Unit Required' is not an acceptable Unit of Measure in the Automated Export System for most commodity classification codes,” the Census Bureau said in a Dec. 31 email. “There will be no grace period for this change.,” it said. The agency said in the email that “the Schedule B, Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), and HTS Codes That Are Not Valid for AES tables have been updated to accept the changes to the January 1, 2020 codes.”
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Nov. 4-8 in case they were missed.
The Census Bureau posted the latest versions of the Schedule B and Harmonized Tariff Schedule tables on its website, the agency said by email. There were no additions to the Schedule B, Census said. "The ACE AESDirect program has been updated with the new HTS codes," it said.
NEW YORK -- A former WTO appellate body panelist criticized the administration's trade policies as chaotic and ineffective and former U.S. Trade Representative General Counsel Stephen Vaughn defended them, while a top WTO official tried to see the good in both arguments. They were all speaking on the state of world trade at an International Trade Symposium co-sponsored by Finastra and The Economist on Nov. 6.
The European Union published the 2020 edition of its Combined Nomenclature tariff schedule in the Nov. 1 Official Journal. Changes include the tariff reductions under the World Trade Organization Information Technology Agreement, as well as amendments to tariff provisions to keep up with technological and commercial developments, the EU Commission said in its preamble to the new edition.
Mexico recently announced a temporary increase in tariffs on three subheadings covering steel products. Tariffs will rise from zero to 15 percent for semi-finished products of iron or non-alloy steel under Mexican tariff numbers 7207.12.01 and 7207.12.99, as well as for certain alloy steel ingots, primary forms and semi-finished products under subheading 7224.90.02. The tariff increase took effect Oct. 16, and will remain in place for 180 days until April 12.
Mexico’s Secretariat of Finance recently issued its 2019 edition of its General Regulations on Foreign Trade. Among other things, the new edition changes the deadline for customs clearance of disassembled machines, production lines or disassembled prefabricated buildings to 90 calendar days (previously it was a period of three months), said a circular from the Mexican Confederation of Customs Broker Associations (CAAAREM). The change takes effect Dec. 1, 2019. More information is available in a Latin American Confederation of Customs Brokers (CLAA) circular.