U.S. IMPORT INDUSTRY TO FIGHT RECENTLY PROPOSED MPF EXTENSIONS

U.S. IMPORT INDUSTRY TO FIGHT RECENTLY PROPOSED MPF EXTENSIONS    The U.S. import industry is using its influence on Capitol Hill to erase language in a proposed Senate healthcare bill that would extend the government’s collection of the merchandise processing fee on imports another eight years.
   Senate Bill 5872 was recently proposed by Senators John McCain, R-Ariz.; John Edwards, D-N.C.; and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. It contains a clause calling for extending the MPF’s expiration date from 2003 to 2011.
   “Similar actions have been tried before and we have managed to stop the raid on the MPF,” said Jim Clawson in a letter to members of the Washington-based Joint Industry Group. “While not earmarked for health care, by using the extension to pay for their bill removes any opportunity for us to debate whether or not to extend, and more importantly, if extended to earmark it for Customs and ACE (Automated Commercial Environment) funding in the out years.”
   MPF was imposed against the import industry in the 1985 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Importers have detested paying MPF to the government, because it was believed that it would go toward modernizing Customs’ operations. Instead the money has been dumped into the government’s general funds.
   In addition to JIG, other industry groups, such as the American Association of Exporters and Importers and the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, are expected to contact Senate leaders to kill the proposed MPF extension.
   The House version of the same bill, HR 526, which was introduced by Rep. Norwood of Georgia,.does not include the MPF extension. This bill may go for a vote on the House floor as early as next week.