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1 1 (October 10, 2018)

handle is hein.crs/govebca0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Inforrning the legislative debate since 1914 Updated October 10, 2018 Miscellaneous Tariff Bills (MTI 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 1500 products. This legislation followed the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016 (P.L. 114-159) that established a process for considering these bills. 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. These individual bills were then vetted by the relevant congressional committees (House Ways and Means and Senate Finance) for inclusion in a larger package. Some Members criticized the transparency of this process, while others defended it because Members were required to file disclosure forms listing the beneficiaries of duty suspensions and affirm that neither they nor their spouses had any financial interest. In addition, there were concerns under the former process that duty suspensions violated the House and Senate ban on congressionally-directed spending (earmark ban) because they were limited tariff benefits, defined in House and Senate rules as tariff reductions benefiting 10 or fewer entities. Supporters countered that because all enacted duty suspensions appear in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), any importer of the subject products could automatically take advantage of the cost savings. New MTB Process To address prior concerns with the process, Congress enacted legislation reforming the process for vetting MTBs. The American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016, P.L. 114-159, established a process for initiating two MTBs, one in 2016 and one in 2019. In order to be included in an MTB, the same conditions for duty suspensions applied (noncontroversial, revenue-neutral, and administrable). https Expanded ITC Role. In the previous MTB process, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), an independent agency with a statutory responsibility to assist Congress (19 U.S.C. 1332(g)), reviewed bills proposed for MTBs, made recommendations regarding proper tariff classification, calculated tariff amounts, and surveyed industries to determine if proposed duty suspensions were controversial. In the new procedure, the ITC's role expanded to include receiving the petitions for duty suspensions or reductions (MTB petitions), collecting public feedback, gathering input from other related agencies, and reporting findings directly to the appropriate congressional committees (House Ways and Means and Senate Finance). The new 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). Late petitions were not accepted. The ITC received petitions directly and published them on a publicly available website no later than 30 days after the end of the 60-day period. Over 3,000 petitions were submitted. After all petitions and relevant documentation were posted, the ITC issued a notice requesting public comments within 45 days (by mid- January 2017). All comments were 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 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. On April 10, 2017, within 90 days after the ITC's publication of the MTB petitions, Commerce, in conjunction with CBP and other relevant federal agencies, submitted a report on each petition to the ITC and the congressional committees. The report included, for each proposed duty suspension: (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. The ITC was 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 (submitted June 9, 2017). For each petition, the report was required to contain: (1) the product's HTS heading or subheading; (2) a determination of whether or not domestic production or an )rts.concross.qov

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