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

Title II of Pub. L. 102-182 (105 Stat. 1233), entitled the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) and codified at 19 U.S.C. 3201 through 3206, authorizes the President to proclaim duty-free treatment for all eligible articles from any beneficiary country and to designate countries as beneficiary countries. The provisions of §§ 10.202 through 10.207 set forth the legal requirements and procedures that apply for purposes of obtaining that duty-free treatment for certain articles from a beneficiary country which are identified for purposes of that treatment in General Note 11, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), and in the “Special” rate of duty column of the HTSUS. Provisions regarding preferential treatment of apparel and other textile articles under the ATPA are contained in §§ 10.241 through 10.248, and provisions regarding preferential treatment of tuna and certain other non-textile articles under the ATPA are contained in §§ 10.251 through 10.257.

(4) Tuna prepared or preserved in any manner in airtight containers, except as otherwise provided in §§ 10.251 through 10.257.

When used in §§ 10.251 through 10.257, the following terms have the meanings indicated:

A Certificate of Origin as specified in § 10.256 must be employed to certify that an article described in § 10.253(a) being exported from an ATPDEA beneficiary country to the United States qualifies for the preferential treatment referred to in § 10.251. The Certificate of Origin must be prepared in the ATPDEA beneficiary country by the producer or exporter or by the producer's or exporter's authorized agent. If the person preparing the Certificate of Origin is not the producer of the article, the person may complete and sign a Certificate 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 §§ 10.254 through 10.256, 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 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 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 treatment made under § 10.255, including any statements or other information contained on a Certificate of Origin submitted to Customs under § 10.256, 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 treatment. A verification of a claim for preferential 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 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 to document the use of U.S. or ATPDEA beneficiary country 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.

(a) In connection with a claim for preferential treatment for an article described in § 10.253(a), 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 “J + ” as a prefix to the subheading of the HTSUS in which the article in question is classified. Except in any of the circumstances described in § 10.256(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.