The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a press release and fact sheet announcing that on March 15, 2004, the U.S. and the Dominican Republic concluded negotiations integrating the Dominican Republic into the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
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.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its weekly quota commodity report as of March 15, 2004. This report includes tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa powder, tobacco, certain JFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TRQs, etc. This report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, CBTPA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA tariff preference levels (TPLs) for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics under HTS 9902.51.11 & 9902.51.12, etc. (CBP's weekly quota commodity report, dated 03/15/04, available at http://www.customs.ustreas.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued a notice announcing that, following receipt of a request from the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), it has instituted an investigation regarding the probable economic effect of the proposed U.S.-Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA), and expects to provide its classified report to the USTR by August 19, 2004.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its weekly quota commodity report as of March 8, 2004. This report includes tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa powder, tobacco, certain JFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TRQs, etc. This report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, CBTPA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA tariff preference levels (TPLs) for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics under HTS 9902.51.11 & 9902.51.12, etc. (CBP's weekly quota commodity report, dated 03/08/04, available at http://www.customs.ustreas.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted a notice to its Web site stating that effective February 25, 2004, hand-loomed fabrics of the cottage industry, hand-made cottage industry products made of hand loomed fabrics and traditional handicraft textile products that are entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after February 25, 2004 are eligible for Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) duty-free treatment provided that proper requirements are met.
The Web site of the International Trade Administration's (ITA's) Trade Information Center (TIC, www.ita.doc.gov/tic) contains a publication entitled, Tariff and Tax Information which contains certain information, online resources, and contact information for U.S. exports, etc.
On March 4, 2004, the Senate passed its version of H.R. 1047, the "Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2003."
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice announcing that on December 23, 2003, the U.S. requested World Trade Organization (WTO) consultations with Egypt regarding the import duties that Egypt applies to textile and apparel products. The USTR believes that the duties Egypt actually applies (on a "per article" basis) greatly exceed the ad valorem bound rates that Egypt agreed to apply in the Uruguay Round of WTO negotiations.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has inadvertently published a notice containing erroneously selected and organized 10-month data on the Competitive Need Limitations (CNLs) under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program.
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has posted to its Web site a list of corrections to known errors discovered after the printing of the 2004 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTS).