Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 28 / Wednesday, February 11, 2015 / Rules and Regulations 7537 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 

SECURITY 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 

19 CFR Parts 7, 163, and 178 

[USCBP–2014–0001; CBP Dec. 15–04] 

RIN 1515–AD97 

Documentation Related to Goods 

Imported From U.S. Insular 

Possessions 

AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border 

Protection, Department of Homeland 

Security; Department of the Treasury. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: This final rule amends the 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection 

(CBP) regulations to eliminate the 

requirement that a customs official at 

the port of export verify and sign CBP 

Form 3229, Certificate of Origin for U.S. 

Insular Possessions, and to require only 

that the importer present this form, 

upon CBP’s request, rather than with 

each entry as is currently required. The 

importer is still required to maintain 

CBP Form 3229 in its possession or may 

be subject to the assessment of a 

recordkeeping penalty if it cannot be 

produced. 

DATES: Effective March 13, 2015. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Seth 

Mazze, Trade Agreements Branch, Trade 

Policy and Programs, Office of 

International Trade, (202) 863–6567, 

seth.mazze@cbp.dhs.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

On January 14, 2014, U.S. Customs 

and Border Protection (CBP) published 

a notice of proposed rulemaking 

(NPRM) in the Federal Register (79 FR 

2395) proposing to amend title 19 of the 

Code of Federal Regulations (19 CFR) to 

eliminate the requirement that a 

customs official at the port of export 

verify and sign CBP Form 3229, 

Certificate of Origin for U.S. Insular 

Possessions, and to require only that the 

importer present this form, upon CBP’s 

request, rather than with each entry as 

is currently required. Goods imported 

into the customs territory of the United 

States from an insular possession may 

be eligible for duty-free treatment under 

the provisions of General Note 3(a)(iv) 

of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of 

the United States (HTSUS) (19 U.S.C. 

1202). In addition to the specific 

requirements set forth in General Note 

3(a)(iv), HTSUS, the CBP regulations at 

part 7 of title 19 of the Code of Federal 

Regulations (19 CFR part 7) address 

insular possessions. 

This rule also adopts nonsubstantive, 

editorial amendments to update the 

outdated name of the Form which 

appears in the list of records and 

information required for the entry of 

merchandise in the Appendix to part 

163 (commonly referred to as the 

‘‘(a)(1)(A)’’ list) by amending the listing 

within section IV for section 7.3(f) to 

reflect the current name of the form 

from ‘‘CF 3229’’ to ‘‘CBP Form 3229’’. 

Lastly, this rule makes editorial changes 

to the sample declarations made by the 

shipper in the insular possession and by 

the importer in the United States by 

updating the year from the 20th 

Century, ‘‘19l.’’ to the 21st Century, 

‘‘20l’’ in 19 CFR 7.3(f)(2). 

The NPRM solicited for public 

comments on the proposed rulemaking. 

The public comment period closed on 

March 17, 2014. 

Discussion of Comments 

Five comments were received in 

response to the solicitation of public 

comments in the proposed rule. All 

commenters expressed support for the 

proposed amendments indicating an 

expected savings in time and cost as a 

result of ‘‘streamlining’’ the process by 

eliminating the requirement that a 

customs official at the port of export 

verify and sign CBP Form 3229, 

Certificate of Origin for U.S. Insular 

Possessions. In addition, two 

commenters stated that potential 

recordkeeping penalties would be an 

effective deterrent against false claims. 

Conclusion 

After review of the comments, and in 

light of the fact that all comments 

submitted were positive, CBP has 

decided to adopt as final the proposed 

rule published in the Federal Register 

(79 FR 2395) on January 14, 2014. In 

accordance with Executive Orders 

13563 and 13610, this rule streamlines 

CBP’s regulations by lessening the 

burden in achieving its regulatory 

objectives. 

Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 

Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 

direct agencies to assess the costs and 

benefits of available regulatory 

alternatives and, if regulation is 

necessary, to select regulatory 

approaches that maximize net benefits 

(including potential economic, 

environmental, public health and safety 

effects, distributive impacts, and 

equity). Executive Order 13563 

emphasizes the importance of 

quantifying both costs and benefits, of 

reducing costs, of harmonizing rules, 

and of promoting flexibility. This rule is 

not a ‘‘significant regulatory action,’’ 

under section 3(f) of Executive Order 

12866. Accordingly, OMB has not 

reviewed this regulation. 

Regulatory Flexibility Act 

This section examines the impact on 

small entities as required by the 

Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 

et seq.), as amended by the Small 

Business Regulatory Enforcement and 

Fairness Act of 1996. A small entity may 

be a small business (defined as any 

independently owned and operated 

business not dominant in its field that 

qualifies as a small business per the 

Small Business Act); a small not-forprofit organization; or a small 

governmental jurisdiction (locality with 

fewer than 50,000 people). 

This final rule removes the 

requirements that an importer present a 

completed CBP Form 3229 with each 

shipment from an insular possession. 

Once the rule is effective, the importer 

will only be required to present a 

completed CBP Form 3229 upon CBP’s 

request. The importer will still be 

required to maintain a completed CBP 

Form 3229 in its records in accordance 

with applicable record keeping 

requirements. In addition to this rule’s 

impact on importers, this rule removes 

the requirement that the shipper of a 

good from an insular possession obtain 

a customs official’s signature and date of 

signature in order to complete a CBP 

Form 3229. 

In the NPRM, using internal 

databases, CBP found that from fiscal 

year (FY) 2007 through FY 2012, on 

average, there have been approximately 

3,545 shipments of goods each year, 

imported by approximately 135 

importers, from insular possessions (see 

Table 1). CBP has since obtained an 

additional year of data (FY 2013). By 

incorporating these data CBP estimates, 

on average, the number of shipments of 

goods and the number of importers each 

year are 3,256 and 126, respectively. 

Any importer that imports goods from 

an insular possession will need to 

comply with this rule. Therefore, CBP 

believes that this rule has an impact on 

a substantial number of small importers. 

Although this rule may have an effect 

on a substantial number of importers, 

CBP believes that the economic impact 

of this rule will not be significant. 

Because importers will be required to 

present a completed CBP Form 3229 to 

CBP only upon request by a CBP officer 

rather than with each shipment from an 

insular possession, CBP estimates that 

an average importer may, at a 

maximum, print approximately 26 fewer 

CBP Form 3229s annually (this value 


wreier-aviles on DSK5TPTVN1PROD with RULES
7538 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 28 / Wednesday, February 11, 2015 / Rules and Regulations 

1This time burden differs from Paperwork 

Reduction Act (PRA) burden because the PRA 

burden is for completing the form and does not 

account for travel time. 

has not changed with the additional 

year of data). While this would be a 

positive economic impact, CBP believes 

that this maximum benefit realized will 

be negligible. 

TABLE 1—COMPLETED CBP FORMS 3229 

Fiscal year Importers Completed 3229s 

2007 ............................................................................................................................................................. 191 7,258 

2008 ............................................................................................................................................................. 188 4,980 

2009 ............................................................................................................................................................. 136 3,210 

2010 ............................................................................................................................................................. 97 2,183 

2011 ............................................................................................................................................................. 110 1,897 

2012 ............................................................................................................................................................. 89 1,744 

2013 ............................................................................................................................................................. 72 1,518 

Average ........................................................................................................................................................ 126 3,256 

Source: Internal CBP databases. 

As noted previously, CBP has found 

that over the last seven fiscal years, 

there have been an average of 3,256 

shipments a year of goods to the United 

States from insular possessions (see 

Table 1). Due to data limitations, 

however, CBP is unable to identify the 

number of shippers that ship these 

shipments to the United States. Any 

shipper that ships goods to the United 

States from an insular possession would 

need to comply with this rule. 

Therefore, CBP believes this rule has an 

impact on a substantial number of small 

shippers shipping goods from insular 

possessions. Although CBP believes this 

rule may affect a substantial number of 

shippers, CBP does not believe that this 

rule will have a significant impact on 

shippers. CBP estimates that it takes a 

shipper, on average, approximately one 

hour to obtain a customs official’s 

signature and date of signature, in order 

to complete CBP Form 3229.1 During 

the comment period for the proposed 

rule, one commenter (out of five total 

comments received) confirmed CBP’s 

estimate of one hour to visit a customs 

official in order to complete CBP Form 

3229. As such, CBP estimates that 

shippers shipping goods from an insular 

possession, including any small entities, 

will realize time burden reduction (i.e., 

time savings) of one hour per shipment. 

In the NPRM, CBP estimated the average 

wage of a shipper’s employee who is 

responsible for completing the form to 

be approximately $45.10 per hour. 

Using the latest figures from the Bureau 

of Labor Statistics, CBP now estimates 

that the wage of a shipper’s employee 

who is responsible for CBP Form 3229 

to be $47.86. Thus, CBP estimates that 

each shipper, including any small 

entities, will save approximately $47.86 

per shipment. CBP does not believe a 

savings of $47.86 per shipment to be a 

significant economic impact. 

Although CBP believes that a 

substantial number of small entities, 

both importers and shippers, may be 

affected by this rule, CBP does not 

believe that the economic impacts will 

be significant. CBP notes, however, that 

the economic impact of this rule is 

purely beneficial and will result in a 

small cost savings to both importers and 

exporters. CBP did not receive any 

comments during the NPRM that would 

contradict this conclusion. Accordingly, 

CBP certifies that this regulation will 

not have a significant economic impact 

on a substantial number of small 

entities. 

Paperwork Reduction Act 

The collections of information in this 

document along with proposed 

revisions to CBP Form 3229, Certificate 

of Origin, will be submitted for OMB 

review in accordance with the 

requirements of the Paperwork 

Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3507) under 

control number 1651–0016. An agency 

may not conduct or sponsor, and a 

person is not required to respond to, a 

collection of information unless it 

displays a valid control number 

assigned by OMB. 

The collections of information in 

these regulations are contained in 19 

CFR 7.3(f) and currently set forth in CBP 

Form 3229, Certificate of Origin. This 

information is required at the time of 

entry and is used by CBP to verify the 

goods are eligible for duty-free treatment 

under General Note 3(a)(iv), HTSUS. 

The regulations and changes to CBP 

Form 3229 will reduce the estimated 

time burden on shippers by two minutes 

per completed form. Shippers currently 

spend an estimated 22 minutes 

completing CBP Form 3229, Certificate 

of Origin. The regulations and changes 

to CBP Form 3229 will reduce this time 

to an estimated 20 minutes to complete 

the form. The time savings comes as a 

result of the elimination of the customs 

officer signature requirement on the 

form. 

The likely respondents are businesses 

which import from U.S. insular 

possessions. Such imports are 

predominantly petroleum, refined in St. 

Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Other such 

imports include tuna fish, watches, 

organic chemicals, and alcohol. The 

estimated average annual burden 

associated with the collection of 

information in this final rule is 746 

hours. 

Comments concerning the accuracy of 

this burden estimate and suggestions for 

reducing this burden should be directed 

to the Office of Management and 

Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for the 

Department of the Treasury, Office of 

Information and Regulatory Affairs, 

Washington, DC 20503. A copy should 

also be sent to the Trade and 

Commercial Regulations Branch, 

Regulations and Rulings, Office of 

International Trade, U.S. Customs and 

Border Protection, 90 K Street NE., 10th 

Floor, Washington, DC 20229–1177. 

Signing Authority 

This document is being issued in 

accordance with 19 CFR 0.1(a)(1) 

pertaining to the Secretary of the 

Treasury’s authority (or that of his 

delegate) to approve regulations related 

to certain customs revenue functions. 

List of Subjects 

19 CFR Part 7 

American Samoa, Customs duties and 

inspection, Guam, Midway Islands, 

Puerto Rico, Wake Island. 

19 CFR Part 163 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, Customs duties and 

inspection, Exports, Imports, Reporting 

and recordkeeping requirements, Trade 

agreements. 


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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 28 / Wednesday, February 11, 2015 / Rules and Regulations 7539 

19 CFR Part 178 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, Exports, Imports, Reporting 

and recordkeeping requirements. 

Amendments to the CBP Regulations 

For the reasons set forth above, parts 

7, 163, and 178 of title 19 of the Code 

of Federal Regulations (19 CFR parts 7, 

163, and 178) are amended as set forth 

below. 

PART 7—CUSTOMS RELATIONS WITH 

INSULAR POSSESSIONS AND 

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL STATION 

■ 1. The general and specific authority 

citations for part 7 continue to read as 

follows: 

Authority: 19 U.S.C. 66, 1202 (General 

Note 3(i), Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the 

United States), 1623, 1624; 48 U.S.C. 1406i. 

■ 2. In § 7.3: 

■ a. Paragraphs (b) introductory text, (d) 

introductory text, (e)(1) introductory 

text, and (e)(2) are amended by 

removing the word ‘‘shall’’ and adding 

in its place the word ‘‘will’’. 

■ b. Paragraph (f)(1) is revised. 

■ c. Paragraph (f)(2) introductory text is 

amended by removing the word ‘‘shall’’ 

and adding in its place the word 

‘‘must.’’; and 

■ d. Paragraphs (f)(2)(i) and (ii) are 

amended by removing the year 

designation ‘‘19ll’’ wherever it 

appears and adding in its place the year 

designation ‘‘20ll’’. 

The revision reads as follows: 

§ 7.3 Duty-free treatment of goods 

imported from insular possessions of the 

United States other than Puerto Rico. 

* * * * * 

(f) Documentation. (1) When goods 

are sought to be admitted free of duty 

as provided in paragraph (a)(1) of this 

section, an importer must have in his 

possession at the time of entry or entry 

summary a completed certificate of 

origin on CBP Form 3229, showing that 

the goods comply with the requirements 

for duty-free entry set forth in paragraph 

(a)(1) of this section. The importer must 

provide CBP Form 3229 upon request by 

the port director or his delegate. Except 

in the case of goods which incorporate 

a material described in paragraph 

(c)(3)(ii) of this section, a certificate of 

origin will not be required for any 

shipment eligible for informal entry 

under § 143.21 of this chapter or in any 

case where the port director is otherwise 

satisfied that the goods qualify for dutyfree treatment under paragraph (a)(1) of 

this section. 

* * * * * 

PART 163—RECORDKEEPING 

■ 3. The authority citation for part 163 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 19 U.S.C. 66, 

1484, 1508, 1509, 1510, 1624. 

* * * * * 

Appendix to Part 163 [Amended] 

■ 4. In the Appendix to part 163, within 

section IV, the listing for § 7.3(f) is 

amended by removing the abbreviation 

‘‘CF’’ and adding, in its place, the words 

‘‘CBP Form’’. 

PART 178—APPROVAL OF 

INFORMATION COLLECTION 

REQUIREMENTS 

■ 5. The authority citation for part 178 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 19 U.S.C. 1624; 

44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. 

■ 6. In § 178.2, the table is amended by 

revising the listings for § 7.3 to read as 

follows: 

§ 178.2 Listing of OMB control numbers. 

19 CFR section Description OMB control 

No. 

*******

§ 7.3 ...................................... Claim for duty-free entry of goods imported from U.S. insular possessions. .................................. 1651–0116 

*******

* * * * * 

Dated: February 5, 2015. 

R. Gil Kerlikowske, 

Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border 

Protection. 

Timothy E. Skud, 

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. 

[FR Doc. 2015–02776 Filed 2–10–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 9111–14–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 

SECURITY 

Coast Guard 

33 CFR Part 154 

[USCG–1999–5150] 

RIN 1625–AB37 

Marine Vapor Control Systems; 

Correction 

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. 

ACTION: Correcting amendments. 

SUMMARY: This document contains 

corrections to the final regulations (RIN 

1625–AB37) that were published in the 

Federal Register of Tuesday, July 16, 

2013 (78 FR 42595). The regulations 

related to safety regulations for facility 

and vessel vapor control systems 

(VCSs). 

DATES: Effective February 11, 2015. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If 

you have questions on this document, 

call or email Dr. Cynthia A. Znati, Office 

of Design and Engineering Standards, 

Hazardous Materials Division, U.S. 

Coast Guard; telephone 202–372–1412, 

email HazmatStandards@uscg.mil. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The final regulations that are the 

subject of these corrections affect 

persons who wish to serve as persons in 

charge of VCS certification, and the 

applicability of VCS recertification 

requirements. In 33 CFR 154.2010 (g), 

the current wording inadvertently limits 

the class of persons who may serve as 

a person in charge of VCS certification 

to persons who were licensed as 

professional engineers on or before 

August 15, 2014. With the passage of 

time, the current wording thus would 

prevent the entry of younger persons 

into VCS certification. This was not our 

intention. As discussed in the preamble 

to the final rule, in ‘‘Table 1— 

Discussion of Comments and Changes,’’ 

78 FR at 42599, our intention was to 

amend § 154.2010(g) to provide a oneyear phase-in period for persons 

wishing to certify VCSs but not licensed 

as professional engineers as of the final 

rule’s effective date, August 15, 2013. 

Accordingly, we now correct 

§ 154.2010(g) to clarify that a 

professional engineering license of any 

date is acceptable for purposes of 

paragraph (g), but that for persons 


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