How you can help
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.
The questionnaires are open — respond now
The ITC questionnaires are now available; please respond. Responses are due between August 25 and August 31, 2026, depending on your questionnaire. The ITC estimates 20–55 hours per response, so start early. 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.
U.S. purchasers’ questionnaire
Download (Word) — due August 25, 2026
U.S. importers’ questionnaire
Download (Word) — due August 26, 2026
U.S. producers’ questionnaire
Download (Word) — due August 28, 2026
Foreign producers’/exporters’ questionnaire
Download (Word) — due August 31, 2026
Return completed questionnaires via the ITC's secure portal — usitc.gov/qportal (PIN: LAMB, Phase: SAFEGUARD). All four questionnaires are also listed on the ITC's website.
What the questionnaires 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. The questions fall into 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 eight benchmark products — fresh and frozen frenched racks, square-cut shoulders, boneless legs, and bone-in loins.
- 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
Since responses contain commercially sensitive information, they receive confidential treatment under an Administrative Protective Order under ITC rules.
Join and stay updated
- Join and stay updated — sign up to get updates in plain language as the deadlines and hearings approach. Signing up adds you to the update list and connects you with the initiative.
Join and stay updated
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