The House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance (the Committees) have requested that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) investigate and prepare a report identifying imported goods related to the response to COVID-19, their source countries, tariff classifications, and applicable rates of duties. The ITC started its investigation on April 7 and will transmit its report to the Committees no later than April 30, 2020. The ITC will also provide updated data runs to the Committees through June 30, 2020. The Committees intend to make the ITC report available to the public.
The report should cover personal protective equipment (PPE), such as face masks, as well as other imported goods related to the COVID-19 response effort. For each product that the ITC identifies, it will seek to provide:
The 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) code for the article;
- Its legal description;
- General duty rate;
- Any special or additional rates of duty imposed on the article, the dates on which the rates were imposed, and the authorities under which they were imposed;
- Whether any such duties have been suspended and, if so, the date of suspension and how long the suspension is scheduled to last;
- The total rate of duty imposed on such article, including any special or additional rate of duty; and
- The major countries of origin for each such article from each country for the years 2017-2019.
The Committees issued their joint letter to the ITC on April 6, 2020. A copy of the letter is available here. In the letter, the Committees emphasized the need for the transparency of the supply chains for this critical equipment and such inputs used in the fight against COVID-19, and noted the challenges posed by "disruptions and deficiencies" in these supplies. The Committees also asked that the ITC not include confidential business information in the report, so that it could be made available to the public.
We will follow up with an additional alert once the ITC report is made publicly available. In the meantime, please let us know if you have any questions regarding regulatory, duty, or other requirements affecting imported goods related to the response to COVID-19.