Textile Declaration to be Eliminated

Oct. 14, 2005

According to the Federal Register notice, effective October 5, 2005, Customs issued an interim regulation eliminating the requirement of a textile declaration.  The declaration usually provides information regarding the country of origin and processing.  The issue of eliminating the declaration has been under discussion for a long time since quotas were phased out. Customs states that it is proceeding in this direction to unburden importers and to foster a paperless environment.

The textile declaration will now be replaced by the Manufacturer Identification Code (“MID”) based on the name and address of the manufacturing factory.  Importers will be required to include the origin-conferring manufacturer info on the CBP Form 3461, (Entry/Immediate Delivery) and the Form 7501 (Entry Summary) and in all electronic data transmissions requiring the identity of the origin-conferring operations. 

This new information is different from the MID (manufacturer or shipper identification code) required at entry in the past; the new MID requirement for textile or apparel products differs now in that the MID must identify the manufacturer that was responsible for the origin-conferring processes.

Importers must be able to demonstrate the use of reasonable care in determining the relevant manufacturer.  This becomes more complicated when production sharing occurs.  Thus, it would be advisable to have on hand a record of the origin-conferring processes and to require your factories to routinely provide you with this information. At this point, companies may want to continue to keep some form of the textile declarations on hand.