New 2008 Harmonized Tariff Schedule Posted to the ITC Website

Issue 02, January 8, 2008

The ITC (International Trade Commission) has posted the 2008 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S to its Web site (http://www.usitc.gov/tata/hts/bychapter/index.htm).

Some of the changes effective on January 1, 2008 are:

• Presidential Proclamation 8180, which accelerated the duty elimination for a certain quantity of Mexico sugar and sugar-containing products that are NAFTA originating under HTS General Note 12 for the North American Free Trade Agreement.
• Presidential Proclamation 8157, which modified duty-free treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), designated Mauritania as an African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) beneficiary country, and made technical changes to the HTS.
• Presidential Proclamation 8114, which amended the HTS to implement certain modifications to the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA), AGOA, etc.
• Presidential Proclamation 8111, which amended the HTS to implement the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) for the Dominican Republic, etc.
• Presidential Proclamation 8096, which extended permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) treatment to goods from Vietnam.
• Staged duty rate reductions that become effective January 1, 2008, as part of various Free Trade Agreements.
• Bulgaria and Romania are no longer designated as beneficiary developing countries under GSP as they acceded to the European Union (EU).
• Some of the tariff number changes we have been told will be effective in 2008 are:

(The textile category number will remain 229.)

At this point the tariff has been sent to the Government and will not be available for several weeks. For additional information please visit: http://www.usitc.gov/tata/hts/bychapter/index.htm