| Title: | Extra Digit on Nicaraguan Certificates of Eligibility for 2011 |
|---|---|
| Date: | 2011-01-12 |
| To: | abi,acep |
| Links: | previous, next |
Since 2006, the Government of Nicaragua has requested U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to require a Certificate of Eligibility be presented with claims under the Dominican Republic - Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) Tariff Preference Level quota in Chapter 99, Subchapter XV, U.S. Note 15. This Certificate of Eligibility is numbered such that the first digit of the certificate corresponds to the year of presentation and is followed by the ISO code "NI" and a unique combination of alpha/numeric characters.
CBP has been notified that the Nicaraguan Certificate of Eligibility for 2011 has been issued with an extra digit following the ISO code “NI.” The Nicaraguan government is working to issue new certificates with the correct number of characters and anticipates having the re-issued certificate available for use within 45 days of the discovery of the error.
Through February 28, 2011, CBP will accept the Certificate of Eligibility with the extra digit. To accommodate quota reporting and reporting on the CBP Form 7501, the first “0” following the ISO code of “NI” should be omitted. For example, a 2011 Certificate of Eligibility that currently has the number 1NI0000123, should be reported as 1NI000123.