CBP Makes Technical Corrections to Part 102 Rules of Origin

CBP issued a final rule updating its Part 102 rules of origin to account for recent changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S., in particular the World Customs Organization’s major five-year updates implemented in 2017 and 2022.

“As a result of these modifications to the HTSUS, certain tariff provisions were added or removed, and certain goods were transferred, for tariff classification purposes, to different or newly-created tariff provisions,” CBP said, but the changes “were not intended to have any other substantive effect.” As a result, CBP is making technical corrections to Sections 102.20 and 102.21 of its regulations “in order for the regulations to conform the numbering in the tariff shift rules to the numbering in the current version of the” tariff schedule, it said.

The final rule, released Nov. 14, affects rules of origin for certain tariff subheadings within Chapters 3, 4, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 38, 39, 42, 44, 68, 70, 74, 81, 84, 85, 87, 88, 90, 94, 95, 96 and 97. CBP is also making “minor conforming changes to chapter notes 42, 64, 70, and 96,” and adding “a new chapter note 65,” it said.

The Part 102 rules are used for determining origin and marking for goods under the USMCA; determining origin for outstanding pending NAFTA claims; for determining whether goods are a new or different article of commerce under free trade agreements with Morocco and Bahrain; and for determining the country of origin of textile and apparel products, other than those of Israel.