Obama Implements Various Trade Tariff Changes

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

27 December 2016

President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation that tidies up various outstanding trade tariff issues, including the implementation of US tariff preferences for Nepal and the Central African Republic.

The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 enabled President Obama to designate certain articles as eligible for duty-free treatment when imported from Nepal if, after receiving the advice of the US International Trade Commission, he determined that such articles are not import-sensitive (that US producers of the articles will suffer little as a result of the tariff removal).

With effect from December 30, 2016, imports of certain textile and apparel goods can be imported duty-free from Nepal under the US Generalized System of Preferences program, as long as they have been manufactured in Nepal, Nepal is classified as their country of origin, and they have been imported directly from Nepal.

In addition, the proclamation also reinstates the Central African Republic as a beneficiary under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allows almost all goods produced in AGOA-eligible countries to enter the US market duty-free. The country had been removed from the program in 2003.

Finally, the document also implements necessary tariff adjustments under US trade treaties with Israel, Oman, and Panama, and under the Dominican Republic-Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua) free trade agreement.

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