Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Introduced In House
On January 1, 2013, amidst negotiations to avert the “fiscal cliff,” Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced H.R. 6727, the U.S. Job Creation and Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2013. The bill offers U.S. companies tariff relief on a wide variety of products not made in the United States, but which are used in U.S. manufacturing operations or otherwise sold in the United States.
The bill, which was offered with wide bipartisan support, is the culmination of a process that began early in 2012, when the Ways and Means Committee invited the submission of product-specific bills to temporarily remove or reduce import tariffs on inputs not produced by American companies. More than 2,000 such bills were introduced, which were then put through a searching interagency process meant to ensure that tariff relief for each product would in fact benefit U.S. manufacturing interests. Those bills that made it through the process were then included in the unified bill introduced on January 1.
The unified bill extends the current temporary duty-free or reduced-duty status for a number of products covered under former tariff bill packages. It also extends duty-free or reduced-duty status to a number of new products, ranging from chemical products to eyelash curlers.
Miscellaneous tariff bills have been used since the early 1980s to increase American manufacturing competitiveness, and to preserve and increase American jobs. The bills have generally been non-controversial, because they affect only products not made in the United States, many of which are needed by U.S. manufacturers.
The potential benefits of the bill to U.S. companies are wide-ranging, given the large number of products involved. For additional information regarding H.R. 6727 and the miscellaneous tariff bill process in general, please contact the attorneys listed below.
