Gemini Shippers Group joined numerous industry groups to again urge support of a Miscellaneous Tariff Bill.
==============================================
The United States Congress
United States Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Members of Congress:
As associations and businesses of all sizes representing manufacturing and other major sectors of the U.S. economy employing millions of U.S. workers, we urge you to include the “Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Act of 2018” (H.R. 4318 and S. 2108) in the upcoming omnibus spending package.
The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) plays an important role in the operations of domestic manufacturers as it corrects, on a temporary basis, historical distortions in the U.S. tariff code by eliminating border tariffs on imported products for which there is no or insufficient domestic production and availability. Such distortions undermine the competitiveness of manufacturers in the United States by imposing unnecessary costs and, in some cases, imposing a higher cost on manufacturers’ inputs than the competing foreign imported finished product.
While Congress had effectively addressed such distortions through the enactment of MTB legislation with strong bipartisan support for three decades, Congress has not passed an MTB since the U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act in 2010 expired at the end of 2012. Since 2012, businesses have paid billions of dollars of tariffs on products not even made in the United States, to the detriment of good-paying American jobs and American competitiveness.
Congress now has the opportunity to address this self-imposed tax on U.S. competitiveness. Through a transparent and thorough process created by the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016, which passed Congress with near-unanimous bipartisan support, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) scrutinized thousands of petitions for duty-relief and received input from across the manufacturing sector and from the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to determine eligibility under the AMCA requirements. The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Act of 2018 includes nearly 1,700 petitions that the ITC reported to Congress in August were eligible for duty-relief as products not produced or available in the United States.
Our organizations commend the House of Representatives for its approval of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Act of 2018 on January 16 by a unanimous vote of 402-to-0. Manufacturers and other businesses across the country, however, have been paying nearly $1 million per day in tariffs since the beginning of 2018 on products not made or available in the United States, because the full Congress has not yet approved the legislation.
Based on analyses by the National Association of Manufacturers, the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Act of 2018 would eliminate import tariffs of more than $1.1 billion over the next three years and increase U.S. manufacturing output by more than $3.1 billion, bolstering manufacturers and other businesses in the United States of all sizes in industries ranging from chemicals, agriculture, textiles and footwear to electrical equipment, machinery and sporting equipment.
For nearly five years, manufacturers and other businesses have been held back by out- of-date and distortive import tariffs that are costing billions of dollars. We urge the full Congress to act to eliminate these distortions and improve U.S. competitiveness by including the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Act of 2018 in the upcoming omnibus spending package.
Sincerely,
Sara Mayes
President / CEO
