• April 1, 2016, Deadline for Requests for Statistical Category Changes

Proposals in USITC Investigation No. 1210-006, WCO Sixth Review Cycle: Request for Proposals to Amend the International Harmonized System for Implementation in 2022, should be submitted to http://edis.usitc.gov.

The deadline for submitting petitions to create or modify the statistical categories of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) or Schedule B: Statistical Classification of Domestic and Foreign Commodities Exported from the United States (Schedule B) is Friday, April 1, 2016.  The proposed HTS changes that are approved would be made effective on July 1, 2016, while Schedule B changes usually take effect January 1 of each year.

Section 484(f) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1484(f)) authorizes the establishment of categories in the HTS and Schedule B for statistical purposes.  .  Requests for changes to these non-legal statistical elements that appear in the HTS and Schedule B are reviewed by the Committee for Statistical Annotation of Tariff Schedules (known informally as the “484(f) Committee”), an interagency committee chaired by the Commission and composed of representatives of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Census Bureau. 

The Committee analyzes and evaluates requests for changes in statistical reporting categories (10 digit level) of the HTS (for imports) and Schedule B (for exports).  Such changes are made to improve data collection and statistical information.  The process for submitting petitions for these changes is outlined in the Preface of the HTS (posted on the USITC web site at http://hts.usitc.gov/view/Preface.) Please refer to the Preface for more detailed information.

Interested parties or their representatives may request changes to the statistical annotations of the HTS or Schedule B.  Such requests should submitted no later than April 1 for changes to be effective on the subsequent July 1, and no later than August 1 for changes to be effective on January 1 of the following year. Parties should specify if the proposed change relates only to the HTS or Schedule B, or to both. These requests should be submitted to the Committee Chairman at the address below, or by electronic mail to 484f@usitc.gov.

            Chairman

            The Committee for Statistical Annotation of Tariff Schedules

            United States International Trade Commission

            Washington, DC  20436

Such requests should indicate precisely the nature of each desired change.  They should provide the exact proposed language to be inserted or deleted (including any relevant units of quantity) and give detailed reasons for the requests.  Confidential business information should not be submitted to the Committee.  Requests should also include the names of importers and foreign manufacturers (when known) that are associated with the articles in question and the countries from which the articles are being imported.Please note that a proposed statistical category under which three or fewer importers or exporters would likely report shipments generally will not be approved, in order to avoid the disclosure of confidential business information.

Questions regarding the drafting or treatment of such requests should be addressed to the Committee, by mail to David G. Michels, Committee Chairman, by telephone at 202-205-3440, or by email to 484f@usitc.gov