USDA Allows FTZ Users to Qualify for Wool Duty Refund Programs

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is amending a duty refund program for wool importers to allow foreign-trade zone users to qualify for the program, it said (here). Importers that use worsted wool to manufacture suits, suit-type jackets, and trousers for men and boys in FTZs before exporting them into U.S. customs territory and paying duties on the imported wool will now be eligible for a refund equal to the difference between the duty in effect at the time of importation and the duty that would have been in effect under a tariff-rate quota that expired in 2014. Likewise, FTZ users that use imported wool yarn, wool fiber or wool top will now be eligible for a duty refund to compensate for the 2014 expiration of a duty suspension for the products. Both refund programs were implemented by a final rule issued in 2015 (see 1503060070). USDA is also amending both of these programs to allow the owner of worsted wool, wool yarn, wool fiber or wool top to claim refunds if they owned it at the time it was cut and sewn, regardless of whether the person actually did the cutting and sewing.