American Business Tariff Relief Act of 2019

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2362 To establish a process for United States businesses to obtain exclusions from certain duties imposed under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JULY 31, 2019 Mr. WHITEHOUSE introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance A BILL To establish a process for United States businesses to obtain exclusions from certain duties imposed under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, 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 ‘‘American Business 4 Tariff Relief Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:31 Aug 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2362.IS S2362 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 2362 IS SEC. 2. EXCLUSION PROCESS FOR CERTAIN DUTIES IM- 1 POSED UNDER SECTION 301 OF THE TRADE 2 ACT OF 1974. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Trade Act of 1974 4 (19 U.S.C. 2411 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 5 the following: 6 ‘‘SEC. 311. EXCLUSION PROCESS. 7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the first date 8 after the date of the enactment of this section on which 9 the United States Trade Representative announces the im- 10 position of additional duties under section 301, the Trade 11 Representative shall establish a process under which 12 United States businesses may request the exclusion of ar- 13 ticles from duties imposed under that section. 14 ‘‘(b) REQUIREMENTS.—A United States business 15 that seeks the exclusion of an article from duties imposed 16 under section 301 shall submit to the Trade Representa- 17 tive information demonstrating that— 18 ‘‘(1) the article is not available from any source 19 other than a source that is subject to the duties; or 20 ‘‘(2) the imposition of such duties on the article 21 would cause economic harm to a United States in- 22 terest. 23 ‘‘(c) DETERMINATIONS.—Not later than 30 days 24 after receiving a request submitted under subsection (b) 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:31 Aug 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2362.IS S2362 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 2362 IS for the exclusion of an article from duties imposed under 1 section 301, the Trade Representative shall— 2 ‘‘(1) make a determination with respect to 3 whether or not to grant the exclusion; and 4 ‘‘(2) if the Trade Representative determines not 5 to grant the exclusion, provide to the United States 6 business that requested the exclusion a rationale for 7 denying the exclusion. 8 ‘‘(d) ADMINISTRATION OF REQUESTS.—The Trade 9 Representative shall— 10 ‘‘(1) establish a component within the Office of 11 the United States Trade Representative to be re- 12 sponsible for reviewing requests for the exclusion of 13 articles from duties imposed under section 301; and 14 ‘‘(2) ensure the continued operation of that 15 component until all duties imposed under that sec- 16 tion terminate. 17 ‘‘(e) REPORTS REQUIRED.—Not later than 90 days 18 after establishing the process required by subsection (a), 19 and every 90 days thereafter, the Trade Representative 20 shall submit to the Committee on Finance of the Senate 21 and the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of 22 Representatives a report that includes detailed informa- 23 tion about requests made pursuant to the process during 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:31 Aug 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2362.IS S2362 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 2362 IS the preceding 90-day period and determinations made 1 under subsection (c) with respect to those requests. 2 ‘‘(f) UNITED STATES BUSINESS DEFINED.—In this 3 section, the term ‘United States business’ means an enti- 4 ty— 5 ‘‘(1) organized under the laws of the United 6 States or any jurisdiction within the United States; 7 and 8 ‘‘(2) that employs workers in the United 9 States.’’. 10 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 11 for the Trade Act of 1974 is amended by inserting after 12 the item relating to section 310 the following: 13 ‘‘Sec. 311. Exclusion process.’’. SEC. 3. EXCLUSION PROCESS FOR CERTAIN DUTIES IM- 14 POSED UNDER SECTION 232 OF THE TRADE 15 EXPANSION ACT OF 1962. 16 Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 17 U.S.C. 1862) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 18 lowing: 19 ‘‘(g) EXCLUSION PROCESS.— 20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the first 21 date after the date of the enactment of this sub- 22 section on which the President announces the impo- 23 sition of additional duties under subsection (c), the 24 Secretary shall establish a process under which 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:31 Aug 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2362.IS S2362 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 2362 IS United States businesses may request the exclusion 1 of articles from duties imposed under that section. 2 ‘‘(2) REQUIREMENTS.—A United States busi- 3 ness that seeks the exclusion of an article from du- 4 ties imposed under subsection (c) shall submit to the 5 Secretary information demonstrating that— 6 ‘‘(A) the article is not available from any 7 source other than a source that is subject to the 8 duties; or 9 ‘‘(B) the imposition of such duties on the 10 article would cause economic harm to a United 11 States interest. 12 ‘‘(3) DETERMINATIONS.—Not later than 30 13 days after receiving a request submitted under para- 14 graph (2) for the exclusion of an article from duties 15 imposed under subsection (c), the Secretary shall— 16 ‘‘(A) make a determination with respect to 17 whether or not to grant the exclusion; and 18 ‘‘(B) if the Secretary determines not to 19 grant the exclusion, provide to the United 20 States business that requested the exclusion a 21 rationale for denying the exclusion. 22 ‘‘(4) ADMINISTRATION OF REQUESTS.—The 23 Secretary shall— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:31 Aug 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2362.IS S2362 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 2362 IS ‘‘(A) establish a component within the De- 1 partment of Commerce to be responsible for re- 2 viewing requests for the exclusion of articles 3 from duties imposed under subsection (c); and 4 ‘‘(B) ensure the continued operation of 5 that component until all duties imposed under 6 that subsection terminate. 7 ‘‘(5) REPORTS REQUIRED.—Not later than 90 8 days after establishing the process required by para- 9 graph (1), and every 90 days thereafter, the Sec- 10 retary shall submit to the Committee on Finance of 11 the Senate and the Committee on Ways and Means 12 of the House of Representatives a report that in- 13 cludes detailed information about requests made 14 pursuant to that process during the preceding 90- 15 day period and determinations made under para- 16 graph (3) with respect to those requests. 17 ‘‘(6) UNITED STATES BUSINESS DEFINED.—In 18 this subsection, the term ‘United States business’ 19 means an entity— 20 ‘‘(A) organized under the laws of the 21 United States or any jurisdiction within the 22 United States; and 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:31 Aug 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2362.IS S2362 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •S 2362 IS ‘‘(B) that employs workers in the United 1 States.’’. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:31 Aug 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2362.IS S2362 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS