Surpassing Annual Limit on Duty-Free Apparel from Haiti
The Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) provides for duty-free treatment for certain apparel articles imported directly from Haiti. To qualify for such treatment apparel articles must be wholly assembled or knit-to-shape in Haiti from any combination of fabrics, fabric components, components knit-to-shape, and yarns.
The annual limit on duty-free apparel shipped from Haiti to the United States over the next year has been raised by 1.1%. However, the sum of the cost or value of materials produced in Haiti or one or more countries described in HOPE, or any combination thereof, plus the direct costs of processing operations performed in Haiti or one or more specified countries, or any combination thereof, may not be less than an applicable percentage of the declared customs value of such apparel articles (60 percent, for the period Dec. 20, 2018, through Dec. 19, 2019).
The limitation has been implemented under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA), as amended by the HOPE Act.
The International Trade Administration has announced that 372,889,066 square meters equivalent of apparel articles assembled in Haiti will be eligible for preferential treatment under the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership for Encouragement (HOPE) Act for the period Dec. 20, 2018, through Dec. 19, 2019. Apparel articles entered in excess of this amount, which is 3.1 percent higher than the previous year, will be subject to otherwise applicable tariffs.
