McCaskill, Portman, Toomey Keep Up Bipartisan Efforts to Support Tariff Reform for American Manufacturers

Press Release

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, along with Republican Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania have introduced the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act, a bill to reform the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill. The legislation builds on the Senators' efforts to simplify trade processes for America's manufacturers and guard against the return of Congressional earmarks.

"We've got to give American companies the level playing field they need to compete in the global market," said McCaskill, a former Missouri State Auditor. "Small businesses seeking tariff relief should be able to access that relief in a transparent, streamlined way that's based solely on merit--and that's something folks on both sides of the aisle can get behind."

"American workers can go head-to-head with foreign competitors when operating on a level playing field, but unfair tariffs put them at a disadvantage," Portman said. "These important reforms will streamline and simplify a system few currently understand while providing a clear pathway for the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill to be renewed to provide needed aid to American manufacturers."

"This bipartisan legislation will significantly reduce material costs for American companies, thereby supporting high paying, high value added manufacturing jobs," Toomey said. "The more innovative and competitive we can be, the more jobs we can create here in Pennsylvania and across the country. I am pleased to work with Sens. Portman and McCaskill to make the trade process simpler and fairer for America's manufacturers."

The legislation is a bipartisan effort to reform the process for the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) while providing a path forward to passing needed tariff relief for American manufacturers who depend on hard-to-access inputs. The bill would simplify the MTB process by allowing companies to apply for tariff relief directly, while preserving transparency, increasing access to tariff relief for American companies, and breaking the log-jam on the MTB created by the earmark moratorium.

The MTB provides tariff relief for U.S. companies that need to import product inputs from abroad because there is no U.S. manufacturer. Often the products are specialized chemicals or fibers that are needed to make high tech finished goods. In these cases, tariff relief can mean the difference between manufacturing in the U.S. and relocating abroad.

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