[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 42 (Thursday, March 2, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11367-11368]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-5081]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Customs Service


Renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences

AGENCY: Customs Service, Treasury.

ACTION: General notice.

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SUMMARY: The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is a renewable 
preferential trade program that allows the eligible products of 
designated developing countries to directly enter the United States 
free of duty. The GSP program expired on June 30, 1999, but has been 
renewed through September 30, 2001, effective December 17, 1999, with 
retroactive effect to July 1, 1999, by a provision in the Ticket To 
Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999. This document 
provides notice to importers that Customs is again accepting claims for 
GSP duty-free treatment for merchandise entered, or withdrawn from a 
warehouse, for consumption and that Customs is processing refunds on 
all duties paid, with interest from the date the duties were deposited, 
on GSP-eligible merchandise that was entered during the period that the 
GSP program was lapsed.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general operational questions:

Formal entries: Leon Hayward, 202-927-9704
Informal entries: John Considine, 202-927-0042
Mail entries: Robert Woods, 202-927-1236
Passenger claims: Wes Windle, 202-927-0167

    For specific questions relating to the Automated Commercial System: 
James Halpin, Office of Information and Technology, 703-921-7128.
    Questions from filers regarding ABI transmissions should be 
directed to their ABI client representatives. Persons with other 
questions regarding this notice may contact Leon Hayward, International 
Agreements, 202-927-9704.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 501 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2461), 
authorizes the President to establish a Generalized System of 
Preferences (GSP) to provide duty-free treatment for eligible articles 
imported directly from designated beneficiary countries for specific 
time periods. Pursuant to 19 U.S.C. 2465, as amended by section 1011(a) 
of Pub. L. 105-277, 112 Stat. 2681, duty-free treatment under the GSP 
program expired on June 30, 1999.
    On December 17, 1999, the President signed the Ticket To Work and 
Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (Pub.L. 106-170, 113 Stat. 
1860). Section 508 of Pub. L. 106-170 pertains to the extension of 
duty-free treatment and the retroactive application for certain 
liquidations and reliquidations under the GSP. Section 508 provides 
that GSP duty-free treatment shall be applied to eligible articles from 
designated beneficiary countries that are entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on or after July 1, 1999, through September 
30, 2001. Further, regarding any entries made after June 30, 1999 
through December 16, 1999, to which duty-free treatment would have 
applied if GSP had been in effect during that time period, any duty 
paid with respect to any such entry shall be refunded provided that a 
request for liquidation or reliquidation of that entry, containing 
sufficient information to enable Customs to locate the entry or to 
reconstruct the entry if it cannot be located, is filed with Customs by 
June 14, 2000 (within 180 days after the date of Pub. L. 106-170's 
enactment).
    Recognizing the impact that retroactive renewal and consequent 
numerous reliquidations will have on both importers and Customs, 
Customs developed a mechanism to facilitate refunds (see, Federal 
Register Notice of June 4, 1997, 62 FR 30672). On January 7, 2000, 
Customs began processing refunds due to the recent renewal of the GSP. 
Customs expects the processing of refunds to take from four to eight 
weeks for certain formal Automated Broker Interface (ABI) entries.

Duty-Free Entry Summaries

    Effective December 17, 1999, filers again are entitled to file GSP-
eligible entry summaries without the payment of estimated duties.

Refunds With Interest

A. Formal Entries

    Customs will liquidate or reliquidate all affected entry summaries 
and refund any duties deposited for items qualifying for GSP and for 
which requests for liquidation or reliquidation are timely filed. Field 
locations shall not issue GSP refunds except as instructed to do so by 
Customs Headquarters.
    If an ABI entry summary was filed with payment of estimated duties 
using the Special Program Indicator (SPI) for the GSP (the letter 
``A'') as a prefix to the tariff number, no further action by the filer 
is required; filings with the SPI ``A'' will be treated as conforming 
requests for refunds. If an ABI entry summary was filed with payment of 
estimated duties without the use of the SPI ``A'' as a prefix to the 
tariff number, a refund of duties deposited must be requested in 
writing as described below for non-ABI entry summaries.
    Non-ABI filers must request a refund in writing from the Port 
Director at the port of entry by June 14, 2000, regardless if they 
previously designated a refund on the Customs Form 7501 by using the 
SPI ``A'' code. The letter may cover either single entry summaries or

[[Page 11368]]

all entry summaries filed by an individual filer at a single port. To 
expedite refunds, Customs recommends the following information be 
included in each letter:
    1. A statement requesting a refund, as provided by section 508 of 
the Ticket To Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999;
    2. An enumeration of the entry numbers and line items for which 
refunds are requested; and
    3. The amount requested to be refunded for each line item and the 
total amount owed for all entry summaries.
    Interest on duties deposited will be paid, pursuant to section 505 
of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1505), based on the 
quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate 
interest on refunds of Customs duties as follows:

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                                                         July 1, 1999-
                                                       December 16, 1999
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Corporate Rate.......................................                 7%
Non-Corporate Rate...................................                 8%
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B. Informal Entries Filed via ABI

    Refunds with interest on informal entries filed via ABI on a 
Customs Form 7501 with the SPI ``A'' will be processed in accordance 
with the procedures discussed above.

C. Mail Entries

    The addressees on mail entries must request a refund of GSP duties 
and return it, along with a copy of the CF 3419A, to the appropriate 
International Mail Branch (address listed on bottom right hand corner 
of CF 3419A). It is essential that a copy of the CF 3419A be included, 
as this will be the only means of identifying whether GSP products have 
been entered and estimated duties and fees have been paid.

D. Baggage Declarations and Non-ABI Informals

    If travelers/importers wrote a statement directly on their Customs 
declarations (CF 6059B) or informal entries (CF 363 or CF 7501) 
requesting a refund, no further action by the traveler/importer will be 
required; the statement will be treated as a conforming request for a 
refund. Failure to request a refund in this manner does not preclude a 
traveler/importer from otherwise making a timely request in writing, as 
described above for non-ABI filers.

    Dated: February 25, 2000.
Robert J. McNamara,
Acting Assistant Commissioner, Field Operations.
[FR Doc. 00-5081 Filed 3-1-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4820-02-P