Dive Brief:
- The U.S. International Trade Commission announced the launch of a new web-based Import Monitoring Tool this week, in compliance with the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015.
- Users will be able to sort through import data for the most recent eight quarters. Users can filter the data according to Harmonized Tariff Schedule chapters, headings or subheadings; countries; tariff lines and magnitude of absolute change.
- The data is provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce and updated at the end of each calendar quarter.
Dive Insight:
The new tool will allow manufacturers to track market trends directly from U.S. Department of Commerce data. That data is based on Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) codes and provides a source to track commercial trends by goods and countries.
An auto parts supply chain manager importing steel alloys, for example, can input chapter 72 within the tool and see which countries have had the most or least volatile import values. Under this example, interested parties could quickly determine (without having to log in) that the U.S. market has doubled it's export values of a specific alloy steel (7225.99.00) since last year. This way, procurement managers can more easily determine potential expanding markets for imported inputs and diversify their supply chain.
The tool does not replace the ITC's DataWeb service, but represents a "first step in planned improvements" to make the system more accessible.
