Interim Procedures for Considering Requests under the Commercial Availability Provision of the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement

The rules of origin for each of the following FTAs, Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CTPA), United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement (Panama TPA), and United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (Peru TPA), require that textile and apparel goods containing fibers, yarns, and fabrics produced in the FTA region receive preferential tariff treatment. Each Agreement also provides for the establishment of a list of specific fibers, yarns, and fabrics that are not available in commercial quantities in a timely manner from producers in the FTA region. Articles containing these commercially unavailable fibers, yarns, and fabrics may receive preferential duty treatment despite not being produced in the FTA region. The Agreements’ lists of commercially unavailable fabrics, yarns, and fibers may be changed pursuant to the Agreements’ commercial availability provisions and their respective implementation acts. Under the commercial availability provision, interested entities may request that a specific fiber, yarn, or fabric be added to, or removed from, the list of commercially unavailable fibers, yarns, and fabrics. Implementing legislation for each Agreement requires that the President establish procedures for parties to follow when making these requests. The President delegated the responsibility for publishing the procedures and administering commercial availability requests to the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (“CITA”), which issues procedures and acts on requests through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (“OTEXA”). CITA has implemented procedures to collect information about the technical specifications of certain fibers, yarns, or fabrics and the production capabilities of U.S. and regional textile suppliers to determine whether certain fibers, yarns, or fabrics are available in commercial quantities in a timely manner in the FTA region, in accordance with the Agreements and their respective implementation acts. The procedures’ intent is to foster regional textile and apparel trade by allowing non-originating fibers, yarns, and fabrics to be placed on or removed from a list of items not available in commercial quantities, on a timely basis, and in a manner consistent with normal business practice. To that end, these procedures will facilitate the transmission of requests for commercial availability determinations and offers to supply the specified product(s); have the market indicate the specified products’ availability; make available promptly, to interested entities and parties, information regarding the requests and offers to supply; ensure wide participation by interested entities and parties; provide careful scrutiny of the information provided to substantiate requests and responses with offers to supply; and provide timely public dissemination of information used by CITA in making commercial availability determinations.

The latest form for Interim Procedures for Considering Requests under the Commercial Availability Provision of the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement expires 2028-09-30 and can be found here.

Request for Commercial Availability Determination

Federal Enterprise Architecture: International Affairs and Commerce - Global Trade