CONGRESS MAKES CHANGES TO
TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE FOR FIRMS PROGRAM

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law included provisions to expand the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms program at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In addition to technical changes to eligibility criteria for the review of Petitions for Eligibility, the legislation expanded the potential pool of clients significantly by allowing “service” industry firms the opportunity to apply for TAA. The decision to allow service firms to become eligible for TAA was based on the fact that 80 percent of U.S. workers are employed in the service sector. Additionally, the expansion allows for some flexibility in collecting data to demonstrate import impaction by allowing a petitioner to utilize customer import information if it accounts for a significant percentage of the decline of the firm’s sales or production. Similar changes were also made to the TAA for Workers program at the U.S. Department of Labor. Changes to the existing program take effect on May 17, 2009. Look to this web site for updates soon. If you have specific questions about these changes or any other issue, please contact the nearest TAAC in your region.

Please click on the link to H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to view details of the TAAF changes. Go to page 282.