Coronavirus Aid Draft Bill Includes Language That Might Help Companies Offset Tariff Losses
The coronavirus bill pending in Congress includes a provision that could help importers that have been unprofitable after the imposition of Section 301 or Section 232 tariffs. According to draft text of the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act), companies can use the losses they incurred in 2018, 2019 or 2020 to get income tax refunds from the previous five years. They could apply now for those 2018 and 2019 losses.
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The bill also sets in motion a study of the U.S. medical product supply chain, instructing the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to examine the dependence of U.S. hospitals and clinics on imported drugs and devices. The report should recommend strategies to promote supply chain redundancy and contingency planning and to encourage domestic manufacturing, if the economic impacts aren't too great. They are to consult with wholesalers and healthcare distributors as they do their investigation.
The FDA requirements to report on prescription drug supply chains will be expanded to include active pharmaceutical ingredients for drugs that are critical to public health during an emergency, as well as drugs used during surgery. Drug companies or distributors will have to report what would happen if an API was unavailable, if it would mean the drug that contains that API would have a “meaningful disruption.” They are to report alternative sources for the API, and whether there is a device used for administering the drug that could cause a disruption. There is money to encourage domestic production of drugs and APIs, as well.