Customs' Reclassification of Certain Imports Eligible for Duty Free Treatment

Gao ID: GGD-81-23 November 25, 1980

The Customs Service correctly reclassified, under the Tariff Schedules, certain gold jewelry chains imported from Israel during 1979. As a result, Israel retains its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) eligibility to ship duty free a certain amount of jewelry into the United States in 1980. Shipments in excess of the annual dollar limitations of GSP could result in the loss of eligibility for the following year.

For 1979, the Census Bureau valued jewelry shipped from Israel above the GSP limitation. Thus it appeared that Israel lost its eligibility to export jewelry duty free during 1980. Reclassification efforts were initiated after it was noted that Customs officials were classifying chains of precious metal as personal jewelry. A review of the entries classified as personal jewelry found 24 entries which needed to be reclassified as chains of precious metal imported by a manufacturer of gold jewelry. Therefore, Israel retains its GSP eligibility for jewelry for 1980.



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