GSP Retroactive Refund Processing – Phase 3
December 28, 2015 Filing Deadline
The Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 renewed the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade program effective July 29, 2015 to December 31, 2017, with retroactive benefits to July 31, 2013. The renewal provided for retroactive refunds without interest of duty paid on GSP-eligible merchandise entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during the lapse period from August 1, 2013 through July 28, 2015.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is managing the refund process in three phases.
Phase 1: On September 28, 2015 CBP headquarters finished processing the entry summaries that had been filed with the GSP program indicator. CBP was able to successfully process 98 percent of such entry summaries.
Phase 2: The remaining 2 percent of entry summaries that had been filed with the GSP program indicator were assigned to the ports for further investigation, duty refund determination, and duty refund processing. The Phase 2 target completion date was November 6, 2015. While most ports have completed this phase, some ports requested extensions.
Phase 3: With the completion of Phase 2, CBP began processing written duty refund requests initiated by importers or their brokers.
An importer or its authorized broker may submit written requests for duty refund on eligible merchandise in the form of letters, post entry amendments (PEA), post summary corrections (PSC) for ACE entry summaries, protests, or other written medium. CBP notes that this is not a “true protest” but in this instance is an acceptable vehicle to claim a GSP refund. These requests must be filed by December 28, 2015.
At this stage, the majority of refund checks have been issued. If you have not received the refunds that you were anticipating for entries filed by DB Schenker, or you are aware of entries that are eligible for GSP benefits but were not claimed at the time of entry summary processing, please contact your local DB Schenker brokerage office. We are available to research the entries and assist in the refund requests.
Source: DB Schenker
