A service ofITC Opens MTB Process; Petitions Must Be Filed by Dec. 10
The International Trade Commission is opening up the petition process for Miscellaneous Tariff Bill duty suspensions (see 1910010060), it said in a notice. Petitions may be filed on the ITC’s MTB portal during a 60-day period beginning on Oct. 11, and ending at 5:15 p.m. EST on Dec. 10, the ITC said. After reviewing petitions and comments through mid-2020, the ITC will submit a report with its recommendations to Congress, which must pass the MTB for the three-year duty suspensions to take effect on Jan. 1, 2021.
In making its recommendations, the ITC will consider whether there is any domestic production of the article, whether the duty suspension is administrable by CBP, whether the estimated loss of revenue due to the duty suspension exceeds $500,000, and whether the duty suspension or reduction will be available to any person importing the article, it said. The ITC will “at a later date” publish a notice seeking comments on MTB petitions, including objections. A Commerce fact sheet says that notice must be published before Jan. 11.
Any petitions filed must comply with the ITC’s rules of practice and procedure. The ITC has also posted a handbook and other helpful materials to its MTB webpage, including a series of presentations with tips for writing petitions on specific types of products.
Petition filers using the MTB portal will be given a series of prompts and links to assist them in providing the required information and disclosure forms. Petitions may not be submitted on paper or in any other format. Filers seeking duty suspensions or reductions on more than one imported product must submit separate petitions for each product.
The MTB portal does not allow filers to edit, amend or complete petitions at a later time, so filers should be ready to complete their entire petition when they enter the portal, the ITC said. If the filer can’t complete it, they’ll need to start over later. Petitions may only be edited or amended by withdrawing the previous petition and submitting a new one, and failure to withdraw the earlier petition will generally result in the ITC considering the earliest petition filed, the ITC said