Title: Import Tax Relief Act of 2019
Policy area: Foreign Trade and International Finance

Summary:
Import Tax Relief Act of 2019
This bill requires the President to establish a process by which certain articles imported from China may be excluded from duties.
Specifically, the bill requires the creation of a process whereby U.S. entities may request that articles imported from China be excluded from duties imposed under the Trade Act of 1974. Such an exclusion must be based on a determination that the article can easily be excluded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and that (1) the article is not commercially available outside of China or produced at a cost-competitive price, (2) a duty on the article would increase consumer prices for everyday items consumed by low- or middle-income families in the United States, or (3) the article does not directly benefit from nonmarket-based policies of China.
Further, this exclusion applies retroactively to recently imported articles that would have been subject to a lower rate under this bill.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 577 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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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 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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Import Tax Relief Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. 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.

    (a) Establishment of Exclusion Process.--Notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, the President shall establish, in consultation with 
the United States International Trade Commission (in this section 
referred to as the ``Commission''), a process pursuant to which United 
States entities and associations of such entities may request the 
exclusion of articles imported from the People's Republic of China from 
duties described in subsection (b).
    (b) Duties Described.--The duties described in this subsection are 
duties imposed on or after September 24, 2018, pursuant to the 
investigation--
            (1) initiated under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 
        (19 U.S.C. 2411) on August 18, 2017; and
            (2) with respect to which notice was published in the 
        Federal Register on August 24, 2017 (82 Fed. Reg. 40213).
    (c) Implementation of Exclusion Process.--In implementing the 
process established under subsection (a), the President shall exclude 
from the imposition of a duty described subsection (b) an article 
imported from the People's Republic of China if the President 
determines--
            (1)(A) the article is not commercially available (as 
        defined by the Commission) outside of the People's Republic of 
        China, or is not produced outside of the People's Republic of 
        China at a cost-competitive price at commercial scale;
            (B) the imposition of the duty on the article would 
        increase consumer prices for day-to-day items consumed by low- 
        or middle-income families in the United States; or
            (C) the article has not been found by a Federal agency to 
        have directly benefited from the non-market-based policies of 
        the People's Republic of China, including elements of the Made 
        in China 2025 policy; and
            (2) the exclusion of the article can likely be administered 
        by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
    (d) Determination of Increased Consumer Prices.--The President 
shall determine under subsection (c)(1)(B) that the imposition of a 
duty would increase consumer prices for day-to-day items consumed by 
low- or middle-income families in the United States if imposition of 
the duty would cause an increase in--
            (1) the cost of an article listed in Appendix 1 to chapter 
        17 of the Handbook of Methods of the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
        of the Department of Labor, dated February 14, 2018; or
            (2) the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers 
        published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    (e) Collection of Duties.--No duty described in subsection (b) 
imposed on an article imported into the United States from the People's 
Republic of China on or after the date of the enactment of this Act 
shall be collected on an article until the President has established 
the exclusion process required by subsection (a).
    (f) Retroactive Application for Certain Liquidations and 
Reliquidations.--
            (1) In general.--Notwithstanding section 514 of the Tariff 
        Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1514) or any other provision of law, any 
        entry of an article imported from the People's Republic of 
        China that would have been subject to a lower rate of duty if 
        the entry had been made after the issuance of an exclusion of 
        the article from the imposition of a duty described in 
        subsection (b) pursuant to the exclusion process established 
        under subsection (a), that was made--
                    (A) after the imposition of the duty described in 
                subsection (b) with respect to that article; and
                    (B) before the issuance of the exclusion,
        shall be liquidated or reliquidated as though the entry 
        occurred after the issuance of the exclusion.
            (2) Requests.--A liquidation or reliquidation may be made 
        under paragraph (1) with respect to an entry of an article only 
        if a request therefor is filed with U.S. Customs and Border 
        Protection not later than 180 days after the issuance of an 
        exclusion described in paragraph (1) with respect to that 
        article that contains sufficient information to enable U.S. 
        Customs and Border Protection--
                    (A) to locate the entry; or
                    (B) to reconstruct the entry if it cannot be 
                located.
            (3) Payments of amounts owed.--Any amounts owed by the 
        United States pursuant to the liquidation or reliquidation of 
        an entry of an article under paragraph (1) shall be paid, 
        without interest, not later than 90 days after the date of the 
        liquidation or reliquidation (as the case may be).
            (4) Entry defined.--In this subsection, the term ``entry'' 
        includes a withdrawal from warehouse for consumption.
    (g) Exclusion Process Established by USTR.--If the United States 
Trade Representative establishes an exclusion process as described 
under the heading ``salaries and expenses'' under the heading ``Office 
of the United States Trade Representative'' in title IV of division C 
of the joint explanatory statement of the committee of conference 
accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 (Public Law 116-
9), the Trade Representative shall establish that process in accordance 
with this section.
    (h) United States Entity Defined.--The term ``United States 
entity'' means an entity organized under the laws of the United States 
or any jurisdiction within the United States.
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