A reminder to prospective MTB petition filers:  The deadline for filing an MTB petition is rapidly approaching.

Here are three good reasons why you should file now:

  • Petitions must be completed and submitted by the deadline.  The deadline to submit petitions is 5:15 p.m. ET on December 12, 2016.  The portal is automated; it will only accept completed petitions and it will not accept petitions after the deadline.

That means you must begin the petition submission process well before 5:15 p.m. in order to ensure you are able to complete and submit your petition before the deadline.

  • Article Description Issues.  Commission staff members have noticed that many of the petitions filed to date contain article descriptions that are deficient and that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) may not be able to administer (i.e., they are not “administrable”). 

Commission staff may, if time and resources permit, contact you to alert you to possible deficiencies in your article descriptions.  But the longer you wait to file,  the less likely it is that Commission staff will have enough time to find any problems in your petitions -- and the less time you will have to file a new petition with a corrected article description -- before the deadline. This is particularly true if there is a surge in the number of petitions filed late in the filing period.

  • Late Amendments/Corrections will NOT be permitted.  If you decide you need edits after you submit, you must withdraw the original petition and file a new one, and you must complete and submit any corrected petition before the filing period closes at 5:15 p.m. on December 12, 2016.  There will be NO exceptions.  See Commission rule 220.9

Our advice?  Don’t wait until the last minute.  File your petition early.

Questions?  Email mtbinfo@usitc.gov or call 202-205-3238.