19 CFR § 10.845 - Retroactive application of duty-free treatment for certain apparel articles.

(a) General. Notwithstanding 19 U.S.C. 1514 or any other provision of law, if apparel articles, as described in § 10.843(a) of this subpart, of a producer or entity controlling production are ineligible for duty-free treatment in an applicable one-year period because the apparel articles of the producer or entity controlling production did not meet the requirements of § 10.843(a) of this subpart or the applicable value-content requirement set forth in § 10.844(a) of this subpart, and the apparel articles of the producer or entity controlling production satisfy the increased value-content percentage set forth in § 10.844(a)(4)(iii) of this subpart in that same applicable one-year period, the entry of any such articles made during that applicable one-year period will be liquidated or reliquidated free of duty, and CBP will refund any customs duties paid with respect to such entry, with interest accrued from the date of entry, provided that the conditions and requirements set forth in paragraph (b) of this section are met.

(b) Conditions and requirements. The conditions and requirements referred to in paragraph (a) of this section are as follows:

(1) The articles in such entry would have received duty-free treatment if they had satisfied the requirements of § 10.843(a) and the applicable value-content requirement set forth in § 10.844(a) of this subpart;

(2) A declaration of compliance with the increased value-content percentage is submitted to CBP within 30 days following the end of the applicable one-year period during which the increased percentage is met (see § 10.844(a)(4)(v) of this subpart); and

(3) A request for liquidation or reliquidation with respect to such entry is filed with CBP before the 90th day after CBP determines and notifies the importer that the apparel articles of the producer or entity controlling production satisfy the increased value-content percentage set forth in § 10.844(a)(4)(iii) of this subpart during that applicable one-year period.

Example.

A Haitian producer of articles that meet the description in § 10.843(a) of this subpart begins exporting those articles to the United States during the initial applicable one-year period and elects to use the annual aggregation method for purposes of meeting the applicable value-content requirement. The articles entered during that initial period meet a value-content percentage of 48%, while articles entered during the second applicable one-year period meet a value-content percentage of 62%. The producer's articles may not receive duty-free treatment during the initial applicable one-year period because the requisite 50% value-content requirement was not met. The producer's articles also are ineligible for duty-free treatment during the second applicable one-year period because the 50% value-content requirement was not met in the immediately preceding period (the initial applicable one-year period). However, because the producer's articles entered during the second applicable one-year period satisfy the increased value-content percentage requirement (60%), the importer(s) of these articles may file a request for and receive a refund of the duties paid with respect to the articles entered during that period, assuming compliance with the conditions and requirements set forth in § 10.847 of this subpart. In addition, the producer's articles entered during the third applicable one-year period are eligible for duty-free treatment based on compliance with the increased value-content percentage in the second applicable one-year period.