Import Tax Relief Act of 2019

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 577 To require the establishment of a process for excluding articles imported from the People’s Republic of China from certain duties imposed under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY 27, 2019 Mr. LANKFORD (for himself and Mr. COONS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance A BILL To require the establishment of a process for excluding arti- cles imported from the People’s Republic of China from certain duties imposed under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Import Tax Relief Act 4 of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Mar 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S577.IS S577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 577 IS SEC. 2. PROCESS FOR EXCLUDING ARTICLES IMPORTED 1 FROM THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA 2 FROM CERTAIN DUTIES IMPOSED UNDER 3 SECTION 301 OF THE TRADE ACT OF 1974. 4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF EXCLUSION PROCESS.— 5 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President 6 shall establish, in consultation with the United States 7 International Trade Commission (in this section referred 8 to as the ‘‘Commission’’), a process pursuant to which 9 United States entities and associations of such entities 10 may request the exclusion of articles imported from the 11 People’s Republic of China from duties described in sub- 12 section (b). 13 (b) DUTIES DESCRIBED.—The duties described in 14 this subsection are duties imposed on or after September 15 24, 2018, pursuant to the investigation— 16 (1) initiated under section 301 of the Trade Act 17 of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2411) on August 18, 2017; and 18 (2) with respect to which notice was published 19 in the Federal Register on August 24, 2017 (82 20 Fed. Reg. 40213). 21 (c) IMPLEMENTATION OF EXCLUSION PROCESS.—In 22 implementing the process established under subsection (a), 23 the President shall exclude from the imposition of a duty 24 described subsection (b) an article imported from the Peo- 25 ple’s Republic of China if the President determines— 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Mar 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S577.IS S577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 577 IS (1)(A) the article is not commercially available 1 (as defined by the Commission) outside of the Peo- 2 ple’s Republic of China, or is not produced outside 3 of the People’s Republic of China at a cost-competi- 4 tive price at commercial scale; 5 (B) the imposition of the duty on the article 6 would increase consumer prices for day-to-day items 7 consumed by low- or middle-income families in the 8 United States; or 9 (C) the article has not been found by a Federal 10 agency to have directly benefited from the non-mar- 11 ket-based policies of the People’s Republic of China, 12 including elements of the Made in China 2025 pol- 13 icy; and 14 (2) the exclusion of the article can likely be ad- 15 ministered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 16 (d) DETERMINATION OF INCREASED CONSUMER 17 PRICES.—The President shall determine under subsection 18 (c)(1)(B) that the imposition of a duty would increase con- 19 sumer prices for day-to-day items consumed by low- or 20 middle-income families in the United States if imposition 21 of the duty would cause an increase in— 22 (1) the cost of an article listed in Appendix 1 23 to chapter 17 of the Handbook of Methods of the 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Mar 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S577.IS S577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 577 IS Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of 1 Labor, dated February 14, 2018; or 2 (2) the Consumer Price Index for All Urban 3 Consumers published by the Bureau of Labor Statis- 4 tics. 5 (e) COLLECTION OF DUTIES.—No duty described in 6 subsection (b) imposed on an article imported into the 7 United States from the People’s Republic of China on or 8 after the date of the enactment of this Act shall be col- 9 lected on an article until the President has established the 10 exclusion process required by subsection (a). 11 (f) RETROACTIVE APPLICATION FOR CERTAIN LIQ- 12 UIDATIONS AND RELIQUIDATIONS.— 13 (1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding section 514 14 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1514) or any 15 other provision of law, any entry of an article im- 16 ported from the People’s Republic of China that 17 would have been subject to a lower rate of duty if 18 the entry had been made after the issuance of an ex- 19 clusion of the article from the imposition of a duty 20 described in subsection (b) pursuant to the exclusion 21 process established under subsection (a), that was 22 made— 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Mar 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S577.IS S577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 577 IS (A) after the imposition of the duty de- 1 scribed in subsection (b) with respect to that 2 article; and 3 (B) before the issuance of the exclusion, 4 shall be liquidated or reliquidated as though the 5 entry occurred after the issuance of the exclusion. 6 (2) REQUESTS.—A liquidation or reliquidation 7 may be made under paragraph (1) with respect to 8 an entry of an article only if a request therefor is 9 filed with U.S. Customs and Border Protection not 10 later than 180 days after the issuance of an exclu- 11 sion described in paragraph (1) with respect to that 12 article that contains sufficient information to enable 13 U.S. Customs and Border Protection— 14 (A) to locate the entry; or 15 (B) to reconstruct the entry if it cannot be 16 located. 17 (3) PAYMENTS OF AMOUNTS OWED.—Any 18 amounts owed by the United States pursuant to the 19 liquidation or reliquidation of an entry of an article 20 under paragraph (1) shall be paid, without interest, 21 not later than 90 days after the date of the liquida- 22 tion or reliquidation (as the case may be). 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Mar 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S577.IS S577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 577 IS (4) ENTRY DEFINED.—In this subsection, the 1 term ‘‘entry’’ includes a withdrawal from warehouse 2 for consumption. 3 (g) EXCLUSION PROCESS ESTABLISHED BY 4 USTR.—If the United States Trade Representative estab- 5 lishes an exclusion process as described under the heading 6 ‘‘SALARIES AND EXPENSES’’ under the heading ‘‘OFFICE 7 OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE’’ in 8 title IV of division C of the joint explanatory statement 9 of the committee of conference accompanying the Consoli- 10 dated Appropriations Act, 2019 (Public Law 116–9), the 11 Trade Representative shall establish that process in ac- 12 cordance with this section. 13 (h) UNITED STATES ENTITY DEFINED.—The term 14 ‘‘United States entity’’ means an entity organized under 15 the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within 16 the United States. 17 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Mar 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S577.IS S577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS