Last week on our trade call, we highlighted three important new laws that impact the industry. Congress passed all three bills with overwhelming bipartisan support and the President signed each of them into law over the past two months.
The
Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act
modernizes the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). We are watching closely to see whether the law's expansion of EPA authority for evaluating and managing chemical risk under TSCA will scale back some of the aggressive product safety action at the state level. The law freezes state action on a chemical during the EPA's risk evaluation.
The
Defend Trade Secrets Act
gives U.S. businesses the right to sue in federal court for the theft of trade secrets. This is important to footwear innovation, because before the new law was enacted, federal civil law covered intellectual property like patents and trademarks but it did not cover trade secrets such as customer lists, software codes, and manufacturing processes.
The
new Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) process
will allow Congress to provide temporary tariff relief for certain products not domestically produced, including some footwear. Under the new process, businesses will submit petitions to the independent, non-partisan International Trade Commission (ITC) -- instead of individual Members of Congress -- and the ITC will prepare a report that Congress will use to craft a final MTB bill. The ITC is expected to start accepting petitions before October 15, 2016. FDRA will lead a robust effort on behalf of the footwear industry to be sure we take advantage of this important opportunity to lower duties.
Stay tuned for important updates from FDRA on each of these issues.
|