On January 2, 2016, the Federal Register published Proclamation 9549 of December 1, 2016 – To Modify the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States and for Other Purposes. The Proclamation modifies the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) to implement the 2017 Harmonized System revisions adopted by the WCO. The actual modifications are incorporated by reference from Annex I of U.S. International Trade Commission Publication 4653 titled, ‘‘Modifications to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Under Section 1206 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988.’’ In addition, the proclamation implements the staged duty reductions in the following Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and Trade Promotion Agreements (TPA) by making the necessary revisions to the HTS for originating goods, as indicated in Annex II to Publication 4653:
- U.S.-Morocco FTA (USMFTA, using indicator “MA”)
- U.S.-Australia FTA (USAFTA, using indicator “AU”)
- Dominican Republic-Central America-United States FTA (CAFTA-DR, using indicators “P,” or “P+”)
- U.S.-Oman FTA (USOFTA) using indicator “OM”)
- U.S.-Peru TPA (USPTPA using indicator “PE”)
- U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (USKFTA using indicator “KR”)
- U.S.-Panama TPA (PTPA using indicator “PA”)
In addition, the HTS is modified as set forth in Annex III of Publication 4653 to implement the WTO Declaration on the Expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products as well to make certain technical corrections to the original implementing proclamation. Revisions an/or technical corrections are also made to the HTS provisions implementing the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Furthermore U.S. Note 4 to Chapter 71 is deleted because the ban on Burmese jadeite or rubies has been revoked.
The modifications and technical rectifications to the HTS set forth in Annex I of Publication 4653 will be effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after the later of (i) January 1, 2017, or (ii) the thirtieth day after the date of publication of this proclamation in the Federal Register.
The modifications to the HTS set forth in Annexes II and III of Publication 4653 will be effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after the respective dates specified in each section of such Annex for the goods described therein.
