‘Historic’ Workload Increase Prompts ITC Chair to Seek $2.75M in More Funding

The International Trade Commission seeks $2.75 million more for FY 2020, without which it “faces a high risk of failing to successfully carry out” the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade, Chair Jason Kearns wrote House Commerce Subcommittee leadership Wednesday. The ITC also risks “not meeting its other statutory responsibilities” next fiscal year, “due to a historic increase in workload for all investigative areas,” said Kearns. Unfair import investigations under Tariff Act Section 337 “have remained at historically high levels,” he said. Trump administrative trade policy actions resulted in a “substantial number of revisions to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, he said. ITC staff have completed 22 HTS revisions this year, compared with the historical “context” of two or three revisions annually, he said.