[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 170 (Wednesday, September 3, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46549-46550]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-23257]


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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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[[Page 46550]]

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 May 31, 1997, but has been 
renewed, effective August 5, 1997, with retroactive effect to June 1, 
1997, by a provision in the Budget Reconciliation Tax Act of 1997. This 
document provides notice to importers that Customs will begin 
processing refunds on all duties paid, with interest from the date the 
duties were deposited, on GSP-eligible merchandise that was entered on 
June 1, 1997, through August 4, 1997, and that Customs will accept 
claims for GSP duty-free treatment for merchandise entered, or 
withdrawn from a warehouse, for consumption on or after August 5, 1997, 
through June 30, 1998, the provisions current legislative sunset date.

DATES: Customs will begin the processing of refunds on duties paid--
with interest as set forth in this document--August 29, 1997.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general operational questions:

Formal entries--John Pierce, 202-927-1249
Informal entries--Thomas Wygant, 202-927-1167
Mail entries--Dan Norman, 202-927-0542
Passenger claims--Robert Jacksta, 202-927-1311

    For specific questions relating to the Automated Commercial System: 
Eric Blank, Office of Information and Technology, 202-927-0441.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 501 of the Trade Act of 1974 (the 1974 Act), 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(a), as amended by the 
GSP Renewal Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-188, 110 Stat. 1775, at Stat. 
1917), duty-free treatment under the GSP program expired on May 31, 
1997.
    On August 5, 1997, the President signed the Budget Reconciliation 
Tax Bill of 1997 (the 1997 Act, tentatively scheduled to be published 
as Pub. L. 105-34, 111 Stat. 788); section 981 pertains to the 
extension of duty-free treatment and the retroactive application for 
certain liquidations and reliquidations under the GSP (the 1997 Act, 
op. cit.). Section 981 makes provision to apply GSP duty-free treatment 
to eligible articles from designated beneficiary countries that are 
entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after 
August 5, 1997, through June 30, 1998, and, for those entries made 
after May 31, 1997 through August 4, 1997, to which duty-free treatment 
would have applied, to refund any duty paid with respect to such entry, 
provided that a request for liquidation or reliquidation is filed with 
Customs by February 4, 1998, i.e., within 180 days after the date of 
the 1997 Act's enactment, that contains sufficient information to 
enable Customs to locate the entry or to reconstruct the entry if it 
cannot be located.
    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) that will begin 
processing refunds August 29, 1997. 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 August 5, 1997, filers again will be 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 denominated on the GSP line. 
Field locations shall not issue GSP refunds except as instructed to do 
so by Customs Headquarters.
    If an ABI entry summary was or will be 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.
    Non-ABI filers who either did or did not request a refund by using 
the SPI ``A'' must request a refund in writing from the Port Director 
at the port of entry by February 4, 1998. The letter may cover either 
single entry summaries or 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 981 of 
the Budget Reconciliation Tax Act 1997;
    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:

June 1, 1997-June 30, 1997--8%
July 1, 1997-July 31, 1997--8%
August 1, 1997-August 4, 1997--8%

B. Informal Entries

    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 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 
refunds. 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: August 27, 1997.
Robert Trotter,
Assistant Commissioner, Field Operations.
[FR Doc. 97-23257 Filed 9-2-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4820-02-P