How you can help: the pathway
You don't need to be a trade lawyer or a lobbyist to take part. If your business depends on a reliable lamb supply, your information can help shape what the ITC sees.
Once the process moves, the response windows will be short.
- Join and stay updated — sign up so you hear the moment the ITC questionnaires open and get updates in plain language. Signing up adds you to the update list and connects you with the initiative.
- Gather your records and prepare your evidence — before the questionnaires issue, get your records in order (see the checklist below). A clear, honest account of how your business depends on lamb supply — and what a restriction would do to it — is powerful evidence.
- Respond when the questionnaires open — When ITC questionnaires become available on July 30, 2026, please respond. The ITC estimates 20–40 hours per response, so preparation matters. Businesses that aren't contacted directly can still download the relevant questionnaire from the ITC's website and respond. This questionnaire is the main method the ITC uses to collect the data that will be the basis of its decision. Since responses contain commercially sensitive information, they receive confidential treatment under an Administrative Protective Order under ITC rules.
Join and stay updated
Protect lamb supply. Build demand together.
What the questionnaires will ask
The ITC gathers evidence through detailed questionnaires that are specific to the role your business plays in the supply chain. There are four separate questionnaires for U.S. producers, U.S. importers, U.S. purchasers, and foreign exporters. Responses are treated as confidential business information under ITC rules: not published in a way that reveals your firm's operations, and releasable only under administrative protective order to authorized counsel. Expect questions in four areas:
⛟Your import and shipment numbers
- Imports, shipments, and inventories by country of origin — Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, and others — for every year from 2021 through mid-2026.
- U.S. shipments broken out by channel (distributors, breakers and packers, retail, foodservice) and by cut — leg, shoulder, loin, rack, shank, ground, trim.
- The tables must reconcile: inventories plus imports minus shipments have to tie out, line by line.
◷Pricing, quarter by quarter
- Quarterly prices and volumes from 2021 through mid-2026 for six benchmark products — fresh and frozen frenched racks, square-cut shoulders, and semi-boneless legs.
- How you sell: contract versus spot mix, contract terms, discount policies, and lead times from order to delivery.
- Sales-journal-level detail around shipment pricing, net of discounts and rebates.
⚖Sourcing and purchasing decisions
- Where you source lamb and how those shares have shifted since 2021 — and, country by country, whether you bought imports instead of domestic product and whether price was the primary reason.
- Supply constraints: any supplier that refused orders, put you on allocation, shorted deliveries, or missed commitments since 2021.
- What drives your purchases — availability, reliability, quality, delivery, price, and attributes like grass-fed, halal, kosher, and organic.
◇The market — and the safeguard question
- Whether U.S. and imported lamb are interchangeable for you and your customers, and how they compare on some twenty factors, from availability to flavor.
- Demand trends, substitute proteins, and whether the 2025 tariff actions have already affected the lamb market.
- What any restrictive measures on lamb availability (such as tariffs or quotas) do to your purchases, pricing, customers, and staffing.
Records to start gathering now
Responses are certified and subject to ITC audit — keep the worksheets you use to prepare them. You don't need every record in hand to begin.
- Import and purchase volumes and values by country of origin, from January 1, 2021
- Quarterly prices and volumes for your main cuts
- Year-end inventories, and shipments by channel and by cut
- Supplier and customer lists — you'll be asked to name your largest, with contacts
- Contract terms, discount policies, and lead times
- Certification documentation — halal, kosher, grass-fed, organic, humane
- Orders already placed for delivery into 2027
- Examples of supply constraints, shortages, or specification gaps
Respond when the questionnaires open
When ITC questionnaires become available on July 30, 2026, please respond. The ITC estimates 20–40 hours per response, so preparation matters. Businesses that aren't contacted directly can still download the relevant questionnaire from the ITC's website and respond. This questionnaire is the main method the ITC uses to collect the data that will be the basis of its decision.
Since responses contain commercially sensitive information, they receive confidential treatment under an Administrative Protective Order under ITC rules.
Questionnaires are expected to be available from the ITC's website on July 30, 2026. The direct link will appear here — and be sent to everyone on the update list — as soon as it's published. Until then, use the checklist above to prepare.