ITA Proposes Fee Increase for U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service Programs
International Trade Administration proposed to increase user fees for some U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service programs and reduce the discount offered to small and medium-sized enterprises for such programs. The ITA said it is taking this action after a study concluded that the US&FCS is not covering its costs.
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Under the proposed fee system, some standard services (Business Service, Featured U.S. Exporter, Gold Key Service, International Company Profile, International Partner Service, and Quicktake) would no longer be assigned a standard price, but would instead cost $55.33 per hour (which would be multiplied by the estimated workload hours). For customized services, the ITA said the estimated workload hours would vary but the user fee would also be $55.33 per hour. US&FCS would also eliminate the SME incentive program, and an SME discount of 50 percent per hour would be offered, resulting in a hourly rate of $27.66 for all SMEs.
Comments on the ITA’s proposed rule are due by August 13.
(See the ITA’s notice for more details, including a table of average service delivery hours for each of the five standard services subject to this proposed rule.)