Policy and Legal

Kitchens across America are missing a key ingredient: a new Miscellaneous Tariff Bill.

What’s going on: SCHOTT North America—a subsidiary of the German specialty glass, glass ceramics and high-tech material manufacturer—produces CERAN glass-ceramic cooktops at its facility in Vincennes, Indiana, where it employs more than 140 workers.

• To manufacture the cooktops in Indiana, the company must first import “green glass”—the glass-ceramic material that is refined and finished for use in appliances—which is not available in the U.S.

• However, heavy import tariffs on green glass make it much costlier for SCHOTT to manufacture these cooktops in the U.S., while fully processed cooktop panels that are finished abroad and then imported are not taxed.

That’s why the NAM is calling on Congress to pass a new MTB as soon as possible. Trade policies should help companies in the United States become more competitive, not less.

What’s the MTB? The MTB temporarily eliminates or reduces tariffs on more than 1,500 different products not available in the U.S. Congress typically renews the MTB every few years with bipartisan support, but the last MTB expired in December 2020, increasing costs for manufacturers nationwide.

• For SCHOTT North America, the MTB’s expiration has led to significantly higher costs for the past three-and-a-half years.

Action needed: To help SCHOTT and other manufacturers in the same predicament, the NAM has been urging lawmakers to pass the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Reform Act, which would renew the MTB through the end of 2025 and offer retroactive duty relief back to the beginning of 2021.

• Since the lapse of the last MTB, manufacturers have paid more than $1.5 billion to get materials they cannot source in the U.S., according to an NAM analysis.

• While SCHOTT North America has maintained its workforce at the Vincennes site, these growing costs have interfered with the company’s plans for expansion.

• “We employ about 140 people at the site to process green glass, but the potential is there to hire more and do more” if an MTB were in place, said Tim Kiger, general manager for SCHOTT North America in Indiana.

No other options: Melting the specialty glass in the U.S. isn’t an option at this time, according to Jim Purcell, SCHOTT North America’s international trade compliance manager.

• “Producing green glass here in the United States would be incredibly expensive and technically difficult to do,” he said. “To build a melting operation in the U.S. would take a long time.”

A voice in Congress: Back in October, Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN), whose district is home to the Vincennes facility, urged colleagues in the House Ways and Means Committee to advance a new MTB in the name of fairness.

• “The MTB ensures that American producers like SCHOTT are not penalized for importing inputs that are not produced in the United States, and levels the playing field against similar finished products being imported from China,” said Rep. Bucshon.

The last word: SCHOTT North America hopes that the MTB legislation, which is sitting in the House, will soon be enacted.

• The financial relief offered by a new MTB “would be almost immediate,” Kiger said.

• Added Purcell, “The MTB is a good mechanism to … conserve savings. In the global market right now, any cost savings helps you stay competitive.”