Haiti Supporting Statment(2007)t

Supporting Statement

Haiti HOPE Act

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A. Justification

1. Title V of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (“the Act”), which was signed into law on December 20, 2006, amended the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA 19 U.S.C. 2701-2707) and authorized the President to extend additional trade benefits to Haiti. This trade program, entitled the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act of 2006 (HOPE), provides for duty-free treatment for certain apparel articles and certain wire harness automotive components from Haiti. This notice will address the documentation requirements for entry and the acceptance of claims for preferential treatment for textile and apparel products under Haitian HOPE. The collection of information for Haiti Hope is provided for in 19 CFR 10.848.

2. For preferential treatment under Haiti Hope, the U.S. importers are required to provide a declaration of compliance with the applicable value-content requirement. A separate declaration is required for each importer of record number used to import apparel articles under the aggregation method.

2. It is planned that this information will be collected via the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) by 2011.

2. This information is not collected in any other form and, therefore, is not duplicated elsewhere.

2. No special consideration has been given to small businesses. All claimants must submit the same information.

6. If this information was not collected, CBP would not be able to ensure that duty-free or reduced-duty treatment is provided on imported goods under the Act and specifies the documentary and other procedural requirements which apply to any claim for such preferential tariff treatment under the Act.

7. This information collection is conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.

8. Public comments were solicited in two Federal Register Notices- A 60-day notice, dated July 12, 2007, Volume 72, Page 38092, and a 30-day notice, dated September 13, 2007, Volume 72, Page 52382. No comments were received.

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9. There is no offer of a monetary or material value for this information collection.

10. There are no specific assurances of confidentiality provided with this information collection.

11. There are no questions of a personal and sensitive nature.

12. Estimated Annualized Burden on the Public The estimated burden for this information collection is 1,333 hours. This was determined as follows: 34 respondents (importers) filing 4000 responses annually at 20 minutes (.3333 hours) for a total of 1,333 burden hours.

Estimated Annualized Cost to the Public. The estimated cost to the public is $72,000.00, based on an estimated $18.00 per response ($18 x 4000 responses = $72,000).

13. Estimated Record Keeping Burden on the Public. There is no record keeping burden associated with this collection.

Estimated Capitalization Cost Burden on the Public. There is no capitalization cost associated with this information collection.

14. The Estimated Cost to the Federal Government associated with the reviewing and processing the information is $36,000. This is based on an estimated 1,200 hours expended at an average hourly rate of $30.00.

15. There are no changes to this information collection.

16. This information collection will not be published for statistical purposes.

17. There is no form involved with this information collection.

18. CBP does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods

No statistical methods are used.