The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation to allow some man-made fiber textiles to enter the United States with zero tariffs. The suspension of tariffs is part of the Miscellaneous Tariff Act (MTB), which gives duty-free treatment to textile raw materials that are not produced in the United States but are needed by American companies to produce finished products.
The more than 800 products approved by the legislation are a variety of man-made acrylics, rayon fibers and filaments. These products are given duty-free status. But the authorization expired on January 1, 2010, and the law has not yet been extended due to controversy over so-called earmarks, whereby provisions were added to the law without the customary congressional hearing process. The House broke the deadlock and once the bill passes the Senate and is signed by President Obama, the cessation of tariffs will be retroactive to the first half of this year. The American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC) said that it has long been difficult for American textile manufacturers to purchase these products in the United States, and companies will greatly benefit from lower-cost imported products. AMTAC executive director Auggie Tantillo said the MIB is an important cost to many U.S. manufacturers and will expand jobs and domestic production.
As the House passed the bill, the Ways and Means Committee issued a statement saying the bill would help U.S. companies “grow and support further job creation.” The committee said the U.S. Senate Finance and Ways Committee, the Obama administration and the independent U.S. The International Trade Commission has carefully reviewed each request for tariff preferences to ensure there are no domestic objections.
This bill must still be approved by the Senate, because there are still issues worthy of attention in the special appropriation law, so there may be some delays, but the Senate is expected to eventually approve the suspension of import tariffs.
