Rules for Determining the Country of Origin of a Good for Purposes of Annex 311 of the North American Free Trade Agreement; Corrections

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Customs Service

19 CFR Parts 10, 12, 102 and 134

[T.D. 96-48]

RIN 1515-AB34

Rules for Determining the Country of Origin of a Good for

Purposes of Annex 311 of the North American Free Trade Agreement;

Corrections

AGENCY: U.S. Customs Service, Department of the Treasury.

ACTION: Final rule; corrections.

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SUMMARY: This document makes corrections to the document published in

the Federal Register which set forth final amendments to the Customs

Regulations regarding the rules for determining when the country of

origin of a good is one of the parties to the North American Free Trade

Agreement (NAFTA) as required by Annex 311 of the NAFTA.

EFFECTIVE DATE: These corrections are effective August 5, 1996.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sandra L. Gethers, Office of

Regulations and Rulings (202-482-6980).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On June 6, 1996, Customs published in the Federal Register (61 FR

28932) as T.D. 96-48 a document which adopted as a final rule, with

some modifications, interim amendments to the Customs Regulations that

established the rules for determining when the country of origin of a

good is one of the parties to the North American Free Trade Agreement

(NAFTA) as required by Annex 311 of the NAFTA. Those final NAFTA

Marking Rules apply only to all goods imported from Canada or Mexico

other than textile and apparel products, and do not apply to trade with

other countries. The June 6, 1996, notice provided for an August 5,

1996, effective date for the final regulations.

[[Page 33846]]

This document corrects some errors published in T.D. 96-48.

Several errors involved the Background discussion under the

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION portion of the document. In the discussion of

the effective date of the final regulations in relation to previously-

published final regulations regarding country of origin rules for

textile products, reference was inadvertently made to July 1, 1996,

thus creating some confusion since the EFFECTIVE DATE portion of T.D.

96-48 specified August 5, 1996. In addition, four Harmonized Tariff

Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) heading or subheading references

were inadvertently omitted from the list of conforming changes made to

the regulatory texts to reflect the 1996 version of the HTSUS.

Two errors also appeared in the final regulatory texts in the table

under Sec. 102.20 which sets forth the specific rules by tariff

classification. First, in the second tariff shift rule for subheading

2836.99, the words ``other than to bismuth carbonate'' were omitted,

with the result that the rule as published overlaps with the first

tariff shift rule for that subheading and thus does not properly

reflect the changes made in the 1996 HTSUS. Second, the final

regulatory texts inadvertently failed to implement a proposal, set

forth in a document published in the Federal Register on May 5, 1995

(60 FR 22312), to remove the Note to Section XVI which, as stated in

that May 5, 1995, document, would no longer be necessary in view of a

proposed change to Sec. 102.17(e) that was adopted in the final

regulatory texts.

Corrections of Publication

Accordingly, the document published in the Federal Register as T.D.

96-48 on June 6, 1996 (61 FR 28932) is corrected as set forth below.

Corrections to the Background Section

1. On page 28934, in the first column in the second full paragraph,

in the second sentence, the words ``will take effect on July 1, 1996,

when'' are corrected to read ``will not take effect before''.

2. On page 28934, in the third column under the heading ``Changes

to Conform to 1996 HTSUS'', after the colon in the third sentence, the

reference ``1517.90,'' is added after ``0901.90,''.

3. On page 28935, in the first column, the references ``8545.11,

8547.90, 8548,'' are added at the end of the first line after

``8543.40-8543.89,''.

Corrections to the Final Regulations

4. On page 28961, in the ``Tariff shift and/or other requirements''

column opposite the ``HTSUS'' column listing for 2836.99, in the second

tariff shift rule, the words ``other than to bismuth carbonate'' are

added after the words ``A change to subheading 2836.99''.

5. On page 28971, the Note to Section XVI is removed.

Dated: June 26, 1996.

Stuart P. Seidel,

Assistant Commissioner, Office of Regulations and Rulings.

[FR Doc. 96-16743 Filed 6-28-96; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4820-02-P