Status: On July 21, 2010, the House of Representatives passed the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2009 (MTB or MTTCA).  Although passed by the House, the bill is not yet effective as an identical version must also be passed by the Senate, then signed by the President.
 
The MTB consists of hundreds of individual bills which provide duty-free provisions, duty reduction provisions, and, revisions or extensions to provisions that expired December 31, 2009. The new expiry date on these provisions is set for December 31, 2012.
 
The effective date will be 15 days after enactment (signed by the President). i.e., commodities classifiable under HTS 9902 can be entered on or after the 15th day after enactment and receive duty free or reduced duty status.  It is anticipated that a retroactive filing period for duty refunds will be available, but protests must be filed to obtain refunds.  Entries filed on commodities qualifying under HTS 9902 on or after January 1, 2010, but prior to the effective date may be eligible for a refund.  The requests must be filed within the time frame stipulated in the final language of the bill signed by the President.

Course of action/best practice recommendation: Retroactive refund requests have a limited scope (commodity eligibility) and filing time frame.  This scope will be specified in the final language and/or via special notifications from Customs and Border Protection. In order not to miss any opportunities to obtain refunds you may be entitled to, and based on your commodities and classifications: