The American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016 (AMCA) directed the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to establish a process for the submission and consideration of Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) petitions for duty suspensions and reductions. The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) Act of 2018 (MTB Act) temporarily reduced or eliminated import duties on specified raw materials and intermediate products used in manufacturing that are not produced or available domestically. This is because it was intended to insure that companies were not at a disadvantage to their foreign competitors when sourcing components.
The ITC is currently issuing a mandatory questionnaire to companies that previously benefitted from the 2018 MTB Act. The purpose of the questionnaire is to collect information that will allow the ITC to prepare a report to examine the effect of duty suspensions and reductions contained in the MTB Act on the U.S. economy. The MTB Act requires the ITC to solicit and append this report the agency’s recommendations with respect to domestic industry sectors or specific domestic industries that might benefit from permanent duty suspensions and reductions. Once the ITC report is completed, it will be posted at https://www.usitc.gov/mtbeffects for public comment.
Originally announced in the Federal Register on October 9, 2018, the ITC has also instituted a new fact-finding investigation (Inv. No. 332-565; American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act: Effects of Temporary Duty Suspensions and Reductions on the U.S. Economy) to examine the effects of the newly enacted miscellaneous tariff bill (MTB). However, as a consequence of the Government Shutdown, a yet to be published Federal Register Notice will formally announce new deadlines for filings. These deadlines are:
- Filing requests to appear at the public hearing – March 18 2019;
- Filing prehearing briefs and statements – March 21, 2019;
- The public hearing is now scheduled for April 8, 2019;
- Filing post-hearing briefs – April 15, 2019;
- Filing all other written submissions – April 23, 2019; and
- The USITC will transmit its report to the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance (Committees) by October 18, 2019.Keep following the blog for updates regarding the MTB petition process.
- All other dates pertaining to this investigation remain the same as in the notice published in the Federal Register on October 9, 2018.