Re-exported articles-- Articles not conforming to sample or specification-. 60 60 55 58 59 60 60 Appendix A.--Statistical tables: Table 1.--U.S. imports for consumption, duty collected, exports, and drawback paid, 1948-67 Al Table 2.--Drawback payments by customs region, year ending June 30, 1967- A2 Table 3.--Duties refunded under drawback by imported A3 A4 A9 A10 Table 7.--Temporary free entries into the United States for supplies to vessels and aircraft, 1964-67--Table 8.--Copper, lead and zinc, not further manufactured than unwrought metal: Warehouse entries and withdrawals and entries for direct consumption, 1965-67--- A12 Table 9.--U.S. imports under temporary importation bond for processing and export, 1964-67-- All A13 ii Page Appendix B.--Provisions of Title 19 of the U.S. Code Bonded warehouses for storage and cleansing of Tobacco products; supplies for certain vessels and aircraft (sec. 1317) B17 General storage warehouse provisions (sec. 1557)--- B17 Drawback on duty-paid inadmissible goods (sec.1558)----- B19 B20 This is an intermediate report of a study, initiated by the Tariff Commission on July 26, 1965, under section 332 of the Tariff Act of 1930, of the provisions in Title 19 of the United States Code which permit the temporary importation of merchandise into the United States with exemption from duty or which permit the recovery of duty when the imported merchandise or its domestic equivalent is exported. It contains information on the use of the provisions, and tentative proposals for their modification. The proposals are to be the subject of a public hearing of which notice is given simultaneously with the publication of this report. An earlier report on this study, entitled Report on Legislative Objectives, was published in March 1966. The study, as stated in the Commission's announcement, is to review the purpose of each provision, examine the extent to which it is accomplishing its purpose and determine its effect on United 2/ States trade. Title 19 of the United States Code affords three basic procedures for exemption from duty on imported goods which are exported. A brief resume of each procedure follows- The drawback procedure.--Under this procedure duty is paid and absolute possession of the imported goods obtained. Drawback or recovery of virtually all of the duty is allowed within certain limitations, upon exportation of the same goods, or articles made from them, or articles made from domestic goods of the same kind and quality. 1/ For purposes of this study, the ultimate recovery of all, or virtually all of the duty is treated as an exemption from duty. 2/ The need for such a study as to drawback, the chief provision under consideration, was indicated in a survey by the Bureau of Customs, December 1964. An Evaluation of: Mission, Organization, Management; Section VII, pp. 38-40. The continuous customs custody procedure. --Under this procedure the imported goods are exempt from duty and remain under customs surveillance in a customs bonded warehouse or foreign trade zone, where they may undergo manipulation, processing, or manufacture, and from which they may be withdrawn for export without payment of duty. The release under bond procedure.--Under this procedure full possession is obtained of the imported goods, without payment of duty, in exchange for bond given for exportation, after repair, processing or manufacture, or use for certain limited purposes. The extent to which exemption from duty on imported materials can be an incentive to exports depends both on the amount of dutiable materials used and the amount of the duty. Although dutiable imports have increased in the past several decades, they still comprise only 2 percent of the gross national product, and much of that amount consists of finished articles, such as automobiles and whisky, which are not used in production. The ratio of duty to value of dutiable imports, moreover, has declined from 45 percent in 1930 to 12 percent at present, and will be reduced further as the rates (generally half the previous rate) in the last round of trade agreement negotiations gradually become effective. While any saving to exporters tends to promote exports, there is little saving in the cost of most articles through exemption from duty on imported materials they contain. Mineral raw materials, agricultural products and numerous manufactured articles exported from the United States obviously do not qualify for such a saving as they contain no imported materials. Exports on which such a saving is actually obtained are valued altogether at something more than $3 billion a year, and comprise 10 percent of U.S. exports. |