§10.236. Maintenance of records and submission of Certificate by importer. — Inbound Citations

When used in §§ 10.231 through 10.237, the following terms have the meanings indicated:

A Certificate of Origin as specified in § 10.236 must be employed to certify that an article described in § 10.233(a)(1) through (5) being exported from a CBTPA beneficiary country to the United States qualifies for the preferential tariff treatment referred to in § 10.231. The Certificate of Origin must be prepared by the exporter in the CBTPA beneficiary country. Where the CBTPA beneficiary country exporter is not the producer of the article, that exporter may complete and sign a Certificate of Origin on the basis of:

(2) If the Center director determines that an importation described in paragraph (d)(1) of this section forms part of a series of importations that may reasonably be considered to have been undertaken or arranged for the purpose of avoiding a Certificate of Origin requirement under §§ 10.234 through 10.236, the Center director will notify the importer in writing that for that importation the importer must have in his possession a valid Certificate of Origin to support the claim for preferential tariff treatment. The importer will have 30 calendar days from the date of the written notice to obtain a valid Certificate of Origin, and a failure to timely obtain the Certificate of Origin will result in denial of the claim for preferential tariff treatment. For purposes of this paragraph, a “series of importations” means two or more entries covering articles arriving on the same day from the same exporter and consigned to the same person.

(a) A claim for preferential tariff treatment made under § 10.235, including any statements or other information contained on a Certificate of Origin submitted to Customs under § 10.236, will be subject to whatever verification the Center director deems necessary. In the event that the Center director for any reason is prevented from verifying the claim, the Center director may deny the claim for preferential tariff treatment. A verification of a claim for preferential tariff treatment may involve, but need not be limited to, a review of:

(1) All records required to be made, kept, and made available to Customs by the importer or any other person under part 163 of this chapter;

(2) Documentation and other information in a CBTPA beneficiary country regarding the country of origin of an article and its constituent materials, including, but not limited to, production records, information relating to the place of production, the number and identification of the types of machinery used in production, and the number of workers employed in production; and

(3) Evidence in a CBTPA beneficiary country to document the use of U.S. materials in the production of the article in question, such as purchase orders, invoices, bills of lading and other shipping documents, and customs import and clearance documents.

(1) Must have records that explain how the importer came to the conclusion that the article qualifies for preferential tariff treatment. Those records must include documents that support a claim that the article in question qualifies for preferential tariff treatment because it meets the applicable rule of origin set forth in General Note 11, HTSUS, and in part 182, appendix A of this chapter. A properly completed Certificate of Origin in the form prescribed in § 10.236(b) is a record that would serve this purpose;

(a) In connection with a claim for preferential tariff treatment for an article described in § 10.233(a)(1) through (5), the importer must make a written declaration that the article qualifies for that treatment. The written declaration should be made by including on the entry summary, or equivalent documentation, the symbol “R” as a prefix to the subheading of the HTSUS under which the article in question is classified. Except in any of the circumstances described in § 10.236(d)(1), the declaration required under this paragraph must be based on a complete and properly executed original Certificate of Origin that covers the article being imported and that is in the possession of the importer.