Industry News

CBP Issues Technical Corrections to NAFTA Rules of Origin

September 25, 2012


On September 25, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published a Final Rule in the Federal Register (77 FR 58931) making technical corrections to 19 CFR 102 in order to reflect recent changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). The changes impact 19 CFR 102.20, which prescribes the tariff shift rules that are used to determine whether a good is considered a good of a NAFTA country and to determine whether an imported good is a new or different article of commerce under the United States-Morocco Free Trade Agreement and the United States-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement. The final rule also affects 19 CFR 102.21, which provides the rules of origin relating to trade in textile and apparel products, except those that are products of Israel.

Modifications made to the HTSUS in 2012 have added, removed, and transferred certain tariff provisions, for tariff classification purposes, to different or newly-created tariff provisions. The technical corrections in CBP’s final rule conform the tariff shift rules in the regulations to the HTSUS. The final rule also corrects typographical errors in certain subheadings of Chapter 90 that occurred when regulations were updated for the 2007 HTSUS.

For further information, please contact a Barnes/Richardson attorney.