House Bill to Establish Infrastructure Fee on Imports & Exports Reintroduced
On February 8, 2011, Representatives Calvert (R) and Jackson (D) introduced H.R. 526 (the ON TIME Act), which would require the establishment and collection of fees on imports into and exports from the U.S. which would be used to carry out certain transportation projects. An identical measure was introduced by these two representatives in 2009.1
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
(The bill has been referred to the House Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Ways and Means, and Foreign Affairs.)
Fee Would be Set at .075%, Capped at $500, and Would be Paid by Shipper
The fee would be set at .075% of the value of the imported or exported article, or $500, whichever is less. The fee would be paid by the shipper of the goods moving through the point of entry using an existing line item on current customs forms. The fee would end after fiscal year 2022.
Collections Would be Used to Proportionally Fund Port Projects
According to the press release, 100% of the fees collected would be invested in specific and prioritized transportation improvement projects within the same National Transportation Gateway Corridor (NTGC).
For example, if the Port of Los Angeles brings in $200 million worth of revenue in fees, the $200 million will go into transportation projects in the NTGC proceeding from the port of Los Angeles. The funds will be distributed to projects in the corridors on an 80/20 matching basis (80% of the funds would come from the revenue generated by the ON TIME Act and 20% would come from other sources, such as state and local transportation funds.)
Projects eligible to receive funding would include, but would not be limited to, freeway expansion, grade separations, dedicated truck lanes, and publicly-owned intermodal freight transfer facilities. Under the legislation, each state’s transportation agency is required to consult with local governments, transportation agencies and freight stakeholders to rate, prioritize, and select which goods movement projects receive funding.
(Note that in 1998 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in U.S. Shoe Corp. vs. U.S. that the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT or HMF) as applied to exports was unconstitutional, and the export portion of the tax was eliminated.)
1Sources at Representative Calvert’s office state that the identical bill was introduced in February 2009 in the 111th Congress. See ITT’s Online Archives or 02/12/09 news, 09021205, for BP summary, which also noted that a similar bill had been introduced in 2008 and a hearing was held at that time.)
Representative Calvert’s press release on H.R. 526 available by emailing documents@brokerpower.com .
H.R. 526 is available here.