CBP Issues Instructions on Filing & Acceptance of Claims under the DR-CAFTA for Honduras and Nicaragua
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memorandum on applying its earlier instructions on the filing and acceptance of claims for preferential tariff treatment of goods made under the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) to Honduras and Nicaragua.
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CBP states that for purposes of applying these earlier instructions to Honduras and Nicaragua, reference to a CAFTA-DR country is to the U.S., El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
However, CBP states that claims for preferential tariff treatment on goods that originate in Honduras or Nicaragua may only be made on goods that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after April 1, 2006.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 03/13/06 news, 06031305 for Part IV - Final, with links to earlier parts, on CBP's earlier instructions on filing and acceptance of claims under DR-CAFTA.)
According to a previous CBP ABI System Requirements notice, there are four types of CAFTA-DR claims:
Temporary Non-ABI Entry Summary Requirement
CBP explains that program updates to the Automated Commercial System (ACS), which allow for automated processing have not been completed. Therefore, until further notice from CBP, importers claiming preference under the DR-CAFTA must file non-Automated Broker Interface (ABI) entries. CBP notes that importers will have the option to file ABI entries at release and follow through with manual entry summaries. This option is allowed only for DR-CAFTA claims and will terminate once ACS programming to allow electronic filing is complete.
(The CAFTA-DR was implemented for El Salvador effective March 1, 2006, pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 7987. It was implemented for Honduras and Nicaragua effective April 1, 2006, pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 7996. See ITT's Online Archives or 04/04/06 news, 06031505 for Part I of BP series of summaries on Proclamation 7996.)
CBP's implementation instructions for Honduras and Nicaragua (dated 04/04/06) available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/international_agreements/free_trade/dominican_republic/cafta_honduras.ctt/cafta_honduras.doc
BP Notes
CBP's implementation instructions for Honduras and Nicaragua contain an editing error, as they mistakenly imply that all CAFTA-DR claims require either an SPI P or P.
CBP's earlier, general implementation instructions for CAFTA-DR, that at the time issued applied only to El Salvador, also mistakenly imply that all CAFTA-DR claims require either an SPI P or P.
(TPLs and 9822.05.10 do not require either a P or P.)