Next Friday (June 9), the ITC will deliver its preliminary report to the House Ways & Means and the Senate Finance Committees regarding Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) petitions filed with the agency pursuant to the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016 (the Act). The preliminary report also will be made available to the public on the ITC’s MTB web portal.

As discussed in prior articles, the ITC’s preliminary report is the required next step in the new MTB process, which allows Congress to eliminate or reduce duties up to $500,000 per year for a period of up to three years on imported articles not otherwise available in the United States. Over 3,000 MTB petitions were filed at the ITC before the filing window closed on December 12, 2016.

The ITC’s preliminary report will include detailed information and analysis on each petition filed, including:

• The Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) heading or subheading classification for the articles covered by each petition; 

• A determination of whether or not domestic production of the article at issue in each petition exists (and if domestic production exists, whether the industry objects to the duty suspension or reduction);

•  Any necessary technical changes to the description of the article contained in the petition that are necessary for customs purposes when the articles are presented for importation;

• An estimate of the loss of revenue to the United States (i.e., caused by suspension or reduction of the normal duty for that article);

• A determination of whether the duty suspension or reduction is available to any person that imports the article; and

• Identification of the “likely beneficiaries” of each petition, including a statement whether the petitioner is a likely beneficiary (“likely beneficiary” is defined by the ITC’s interim MTB rules as “an individual or entity likely to utilize, or benefit directly from the utilization of, an article that is the subject of a petition for a duty suspension or reduction”).

The ITC’s preliminary report also will identify the petitions “that meet the requirements of the Act without modifications” and the petitions that require “technical corrections” so as “to meet the requirements of the Act.” The ITC’s preliminary report also will list petitions for which the ITC recommends modifications to the requested amount of duty suspension or reduction in order to meet the $500,000 annual-duty-reduction limit specified by the Act. The ITC’s preliminary report also will recommend modifications “to the scope of the articles” as described in any relevant petition “in order to address objections by domestic producers to such petitions, with the modifications specified.” Finally, the ITC’s preliminary report will identify the petitions that did not provide all of the information required by the Act, the petitions for which the ITC has determined the petitioner is not a likely beneficiary, and the petitions that the ITC otherwise does not recommend for inclusion in any MTB.

Later this summer (no later than 60 days after the ITC submits its preliminary report), the ITC will issue a final report which updates information contained in the preliminary report as necessary. The final report also will provide the ITC’s views on additional topics, including whether the requested duty relief is administrable by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, that the estimated relief will not exceed the $500,000 annual-duty-reduction limit, and whether the requested relief is available to any importer of the article.