Last month, ACA sent a letter to members of Congress urging swift passage of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB). ACA’s support for MTB has been ongoing for years – the MTB, which temporarily reduces or eliminate tariffs on products that are not available in the United States, has been expired since December 2020. In November, ACA joined with a broad industry coalition in urging swift passage of this bill.
Read ACA’s letter to the Senate below.
“ACA is the premier trade association dedicated to advancing the interests of the coatings industry and represents paint and coatings manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and technical professionals. Many of today’s paints and coatings may go unnoticed by the consumer, but they play immeasurably valuable roles in delivering high-quality foodstuffs, durable goods, housing, furniture, and thousands of other products to market. Total sales for the industry are approximately $30 billion annually.
Advancing this legislation in the Senate is critical to our industry, as paint and coatings manufacturers and other businesses are paying nearly $1.4 million per day in out-of-date, distortive and anticompetitive import tariffs on products not made or available in the United States – tariffs which would be eliminated under the MTB Act. These products are essential in the formulas for paints, coatings, inks, dyes, adhesives and sealants. They include pigments, anti-caking agents, anti-skinning agents, flame retardants, consistency regulators, UV absorbers, wood preservatives, low reactive solvents, and miscellaneous solvents.
The savings to ACA member companies in charges for import duties imposed by U.S. Customs would be tens of millions of dollars annually — savings which could be used by companies instead to invest in their U.S facilities and workforce. This would be a recurring savings for each of the years that the MTB is in force, depending on the volume of imports and the duty rates in effect.”
Contact ACA’s Heidi McAuliffe for more information.