On January 16, 2018, the US House of Representatives passed the bi-partisan Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Act of 2017 (HR 4318, or MTB) by a vote of 402-0. The MTB temporarily reduces or suspends the duty on more than 1,800 items (including chemicals) used in production in the United States that are generally not available domestically in sufficient numbers to meet demand and for which there is no domestic opposition. There has been no Miscellaneous Tariff Bill since the last one expired in 2012. The MTB places the covered items in Chapter 99 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. Most of the provisions will expire at the end of 2020. The MTB is the first piece of legislation under a revamped process contained in the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016 that requires requests to first be filed with an independent agency (the US International Trade Commission) that will review all proposals and prepare a report to Congress. Prior to the new process, tariff suspensions were individually introduced by their sponsors, then referred to the ITC, Customs and Border Protection and other relevant agencies for screening, after which the successful provisions were combined into a single piece of legislation that was frequently tacked on to other pending legislation. An identical bill (S. 2108) was introduced in the US Senate in November.
TAGS: trade policy, Customs/imports, related trade issues, US
