§3592 Rules of origin for textile and apparel products

Summary

The Treasury Secretary must write rules, by July 1, 1995, that explain how to decide where a textile or clothing item comes from for customs and quota purposes. A product counts as coming from a place if it was wholly made there; if it is yarn made from fibers spun there or filament extruded there; if it is fabric made there by weaving, knitting, felting, tufting, or other fabric-making processes; or if it is any other textile or clothing item that was fully assembled there. Certain listed HTS categories (for example, 5609; 5807; 5811; 6209.20.50.40; 6213; 6214; 6301–6308; 9404.90) must follow the yarn or fabric rules instead of the simple assembly rule. Items knit-to-shape are treated as originating where they were knit. Fabrics of silk, cotton, man-made, or vegetable fiber count as originating where they were both dyed and printed if two or more finishing steps (like bleaching, shrinking, fulling, napping, decating, permanent stiffening, weighting, permanent embossing, or moireing) are also done there. A similar dye-and-print rule with two finishing steps applies to certain other HTS items, with an exception for items of cotton, wool, or blends with 16 percent or more cotton by weight. If none of those rules decide origin, the origin is the country with the most important assembly or manufacturing step, or if still unclear, the last country where an important assembly step happened. The law also says how to treat the value of components cut to shape in the United States and exported for assembly, and it preserves earlier origin rulings for free-trade agreements that entered into force before January 1, 1987. The rules apply to goods entered for consumption on or after July 1, 1996, except for goods covered by contracts made before July 20, 1994 whose terms were fixed by that date and whose contract was filed with Customs within 60 days after December 8, 1994; those goods must enter by January 1, 1998.