(a) Issuance of certificates. (1) The total annual amount of the Certificate of Entitlement, Form ITA-360, may be divided and issued on a biannual basis. The first portion of the total annual certificate amount will be based on reported duty-free shipments and creditable wages, determined from the wages as reported on the employer's first two quarterly federal tax returns (941-SS), paid during the first six month of the calendar year, using the formula in § 303.20(b). The Departments require the receipt of the data by July 31 for each producer who wishes to receive an interim duty refund certificate. The interim duty refund certificate will be issued on or before August 31 of the same year in which the wages were earned unless the Departments have unresolved questions. The process of determining the total annual amount of the duty refund will be based on verified creditable wages, duty-free shipments into the customs territory of the United States, creditable health insurance, life insurance and pension benefits and the duty differential, if watch tariffs have been reduced during the calendar year. The completed annual application (Form ITA-334P) shall be received by the Departments on or before January 31 and the annual verification of data and calculation of each producer's total annual duty refund, based on the verified data, will continue to take place in February. Once the calculations for each producer's duty refund has been completed, the portion of the duty refund that has already been issued to each producer will be deducted from the total amount of each producer's annual duty refund amount. The duty refund certificate will continue to be issued by March 1 unless the Departments have unresolved questions.

(2) Certificates shall not be issued to more than one jewelry company in the territories owned or controlled by the same corporate entity.

(b) Security and handling of certificates. (1) Certificate holders are responsible for the security of the certificates. The certificates shall be kept at the territorial address of the producer or at another location having the advance approval of the Departments.

(2) All refund requests made pursuant to the certificates shall be entered on the reverse side of the certificate.

(3) Certificates shall be returned by registered, certified or express carrier mail to the Department of Commerce when:

(i) A refund is requested which exhausts the entitlement on the face of the certificate,

(ii) The certificate expires, or

(iii) The Departments request their return with good cause.

(4) Certificate entitlements may be transferred according to the procedures described in paragraph (c) of this section.

(c) The use and transfer of certificate entitlements. (1) Insular producers issued a certificate may request a refund by executing Form ITA-361P (see § 303.16(b)(3)) and the instruction on the form). After authentication by the Department of Commerce, Form ITA-361P may be used to obtain duty refunds on article that entered the customs territory of the United States duty paid. Duties on an article which is the product of a country with respect to column 2 rates of duty apply may not be refunded Articles for which duty refunds are claimed must have entered the customs territory of the United States during the two-year period prior to the issue date of the certificate or during the one-year period the certificate remains valid. Copies of the appropriate Customs entries must be provided with the refund request in order to establish a basis for issuing the claimed amounts. Certification regarding drawback claims and liquidated refunds relating to the presented entries is required from the claimant on the form.

(2) Regulations issued by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, govern the refund of duties under 19 CFR 7.4. If the Departments receive information from the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection that a producer has made unauthorized use of any official form, they may cancel the affected certificate.

(3) The territorial producer may transfer a portion of all of its certificate entitlement to another party by entering in block C of Form ITA-361P the name and address of the party.

(4) After a Form ITA-361P transferring a certificate entitlement to a party other than the certificate holder has been authenticated by the Department of Commerce, the form may be exchanged for any consideration satisfactory to the two parties. In all cases, authenticated forms shall be transmitted to the certificate holder or its authorized custodian for disposition (see paragraph (b) of this section).

(5) All disputes concerning the use of an authenticated Form ITA-361P shall be referred to the Departments for resolution. Any party named on an authenticated Form ITA-361P shall be considered an “interested party” within the meaning of § 303.21 of this part.