ITC Announces Likely Delay in U.S. Implementation of 2007 HTS Changes
U.S. importers and customs brokers should be advised that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), the U.S. agency responsible for issuing the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), today issued an important announcement regarding the 2007 changes to the HTSUS in order to implement the modifications made to the Harmonized System by the World Customs Organization. These changes are to go into worldwide effect on January 1, 2007. The ITC advised that the implementation date for the WCO amendments probably will be delayed until later in January or until February 2007." The complete text of the ITC's announcement is reprinted below:
IMPORTANT NOTE CONCERNING THE 2007 HTS
Effective January 1, 2007, the USITC will post on this website an electronic version of the 2007 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS). This version will include all changes occurring since the posting of the 2006 HTS (Supplement 1, Rev. 2), but likely will NOT include amendments recommended by the World Customs Organization (WCO) for implementation on January 1, 2007. By U.S. law, the President cannot proclaim the implementation of these latter amendments in the HTS until a required 60-legislative-day Congressional layover period is completed. The Congressional layover "clock" began in late May, but was stopped each time either the House or the Senate was not in session. The layover period will resume during the week of December 4, 2006, when both the House and Senate reconvene, and will continue until it has been completed. If the layover has not been completed by mid-December, the effective date for implementing the WCO amendments cannot occur until after January 1, because the amendments cannot go into effect for at least 15 days after the Presidential proclamation is published in the Federal Register. Depending on the status of the layover at the termination of the 109th Congress in December 2006, the implementation date for the WCO amendments probably will be delayed until later in January or until February 2007. At that time, the ITC will post an updated electronic version on this website, and the Government Printing Office will publish a hard-copy version of the 2007 HTS.
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