Have you heard of The American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act (AMCA) of 2016? If you're a domestic producer, you're going to want to pay attention.
Previously, members of Congress generally introduced individual bills that led to the enactment of temporary duty suspensions under the act.
These actions were often requested by (1) domestic manufacturers that used the imported products in their manufacturing process, (2) domestic retailers, or (3) other interested parties. Congress referred the bills to the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance (“Committees”), which have jurisdiction over such matters.
Next, the Committees referred the bills to the USITC, the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (or CBP) for technical review and information. The information that the agencies supplied to the Committees included product descriptions, tariff classifications, the views of U.S. producers and other interested parties, estimated revenue loss if the duty suspension or reduction were enacted, and so forth.
After the agencies responded, the Committees compiled a duty suspension/reduction bill for Congress to consider.
AMCA established a new process under which members of the public could file petitions for duty suspensions and reductions directly online. It authorized the new process for two petitioning cycles, with the first beginning no later than October 15, 2016, and the second beginning no later than October 15, 2019. AMCA sets out a timetable for the filing of petitions (limited to a 60-day period), the posting of petitions on our website for public review, the filing of public comments on petitions posted, our posting of those comments, and our submission of preliminary and final reports to the Committees. AMCA also sets requirements regarding the information that must be included in a petition. At the end of the process, we are required by AMCA to transmit preliminary and final reports to the Committees listing the petitions that we view as meeting the statutory requirements.
So now that we’ve reviewed AMCA and its purpose and offerings, let’s take a look at what steps you should take now:
- First and foremost, you’ll want to set up an account under the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill petitioning system so that you can start your petition. Complete all of the required information online, and please remember you have 60 days from Oct 11, 2019, to submit.
- Avoid any duplication of the same product from submission as this will cause the submission of your products from moving forward.
You may be asking, “What happens if another company files a petition for the same product?” Don’t fret - the ITC will review all submissions and if the same (or a similar) product was filed then they will manage the submission by combining them.
The complete set of instructions for submission of your details are listed here.
Should you have any questions about this process and how you can apply, please reach out to me directly.
