The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is soliciting proposals from interested parties and agencies to amend the International Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (Harmonized System, HS) to accommodate changes in technology and trade patterns.

As part of the review process, the ITC is particularly interested in proposals that address the following matters:

• Deletion of HS headings or subheadings with low trade volume
• Identification of new products important to the international trade community
• Simplification of the HS (i.e., the elimination of classification provisions which are difficult to administer)

The ITC notes that proposals for changes to the national-level provisions (which include U.S. 8-digit subheadings, statistical annotations, and rates of duty) will not be considered by the ITC as part of this review.

Written submissions from interested parties are due by October 14, 2005. Furthermore, it is anticipated that the target date for implementation of changes will be January of 2012, both for the U.S. and other WCO members. Based on modifications to the International Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, the U.S. will align its Harmonized Tariff Schedule to reflect those changes.

Interested parties are encouraged to review the ITC notice (FR Pub 08/29/05), which can be accessed via the following URL:
a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/pdf/05-17057.pdf