The U.S. Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreement (CITA) has issued a directive to the Commissioner of U.S. Customs eliminating the paper visa requirement for textile and textile products produced or manufactured in the Philippines and exported to the U.S. on or after 15 September 2002.

Under the new ELVIS Arrangement, a paper visa is no longer required since the ELVIS transmission from the Philippines certifies to country of origin and authorizes the shipment to be charged against any applicable Philippine quota.

In lieu of the paper visa, the GTEB will issue an ELVIS Notification Form to exporters of quota-restrained product categories to the U.S. to notify buyers that an ELVIS transmission has been made.  This ELVIS notification must be sent to the buyer so that she/he can initiate securing approval to release the goods from the U.S. Customs.

The ELVIS Notification Form will be issued immediately upon release of the Textile Export Clearance (TEC) for air shipments, and upon submission and encoding of the bill of lading (BL) for shipments by sea. Attached are two samples of the GTEB ELVIS Notification Form^* (A) for EDI users and (B) for non-EDI users.

These forms will be issued to exporters without any stamp or signature since authenticity is secured electronically and internally between GTEB and the US Customs.  Upon receipt of the original and duplicate copies, company representatives will have to acknowledge receipt on the 3rd copy of the GTEB's file.

The implementation of the ELVIS arrangement guarantees integrity and faster processing through electronic transaction with minimal human intervention, and is part of our continuing effort to serve the industry along best-practice principles.

This memorandum circular takes effect immediately.

Adopted: 23 Sept. 2002


(SGD.) SERAFIN N. JULIANO
Caretaker

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^* Not filed with ONAR.