About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (September 6, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govbayr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Updated September 6, 2019 Miscellaneous Tariff Bills (MTBs Background On September 13, 2018, the President signed the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-239), an Act that provided temporary tariff suspensions and reductions on more than 1,600 products until December 31, 2020. This legislation followed a process enacted in the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016 (AMCA, P.L. 114-159). The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is preparing a new round of tariff suspension petitions to begin no later than October 15, 2019, as also provided for in the AMCA. What Are MTBs? Miscellaneous Tariff Bills (MTBs) aim to temporarily suspend or reduce tariffs on certain imported products (called duty suspensions). In order to be considered for inclusion in an MTB, proposed individual duty suspensions must be noncontroversial (e.g., no domestic producer or Member objects); revenue-neutral (forgone tariff revenues of no more than $500,000 per product); and administrable by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Debate. Many in Congress support MTBs as a relatively low-cost method of providing a competitive edge to U.S. businesses by reducing tariffs on chemicals and other inputs used to manufacture downstream products, thus making end-use products more affordable to consumers. However, the former process by which MTBs were originally assembled was controversial because it involved constituents asking individual Members to introduce duty suspension bills to benefit a constituent's company. New MTB Process To address these prior concerns, Congress enacted AMCA to reform the process for vetting MTBs. The law also established a process for initiating two MTBs, one in 2016, and the second in 2019. To be included in an MTB, the same conditions for duty suspensions are applied as in the previous process (i.e., noncontroversial, revenue-neutral, and administrable). Expanded ITC Role. Prior to passage of the AMCA, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), an independent agency with statutory responsibility to assist Congress (19 U.S.C. 1332(g)), reviewed duty suspension bills submitted by Members, made recommendations regarding proper tariff classification, calculated tariff amounts, and surveyed industries to determine if proposed duty suspensions were controversial. The AMCA expanded the ITC's role to include directly receiving the petitions for duty suspensions or reductions (MTB petitions) from industry representatives, collecting public feedback, gathering input from other related agencies, and reporting findings directly to the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees. The 2016 MTB process began on October 14, 2016, with an ITC notice published in the Federal Register asking members of the public who can demonstrate that they are potential MTB beneficiaries to submit petitions within 60 days (closed on December 12, 2016). The AMCA- authorized 2019 process must follow a similar timeline. Late petitions will not be accepted. The ITC will receive petitions directly and must publish them on a publicly available website no later than 30 days after the end of the 60-day petition period. Petitioners that wish to have existing duty suspensions continue must re-apply. After all petitions and relevant documentation are posted, the ITC will issue a notice requesting public comments within 45 days (expected by about mid-January 2020). All comments will be available to the public (see Table 1, MTB Process Timeline in P.L. 114-159, below). Commerce Report. In previous MTBs, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) coordinated the Administration's comments on duty suspensions. Commerce analysts, along with the ITC, also researched proposed duty suspensions to determine the existence of any objecting domestic producers. In the new process, Commerce's role remains essentially the same, with the addition of a deadline. As in the 2016 MTB process, the Department of Commerce, in conjunction with CBP and other relevant federal agencies, must submit a report to the ITC and Congress on each petition within 90 days after the ITC's publication of the MTB petitions. For each proposed duty suspension the report must include: (1) a determination of whether domestic production exists, or if domestic production does exist, whether the producer objects to the MTB petition; and (2) identification of technical changes to the description, if any, necessary for purposes of CBP administration. ITC Preliminary Report. In the AMCA, the ITC is required to submit a preliminary report to the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees 120 to 150 days following the publication date of the MTB petitions. For each petition, the report must contain: (1) the product's HTS heading or subheading; (2) a determination of whether or not domestic production or an objection to the duty suspension existed; (3) any technical changes necessary to the product description; (4) an estimate of the amount of loss in U.S. revenue; (5) a determination of whether the duty suspension or reduction would be available to any importer of the targeted product; and (6) the likely beneficiaries of the duty suspension or reduction. Based on the timeline in the AMCA and the previous cycle, the preliminary report may come out in June 2020. Final ITC Report. After taking into account congressional committee feedback and other information, the ITC must submit its final report within 60 days determining, in part, whether each petition (1) is able to be administered by https://crsreports.cong

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most