Federal/Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA)

Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Overview
The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program is a federal program that assists workers who have lost their jobs as a result of increased imports or shifts in production out of the United States. This program provides adversely affected workers with opportunities to obtain the skills, credentials, resources and support necessary to become re-employed. If a Trade petition is certified, each adversely affected worker in the group must apply for individual benefits and services through his or her local Kentucky Career Center office to determine individual eligibility for re-employment services and benefits.

Rapid Response Services
The federal government provides additional services to workers whose jobs are lost due to foreign trade or shifts in production out of the United States. While not all job loss due to foreign competition meets the requirements of the Trade Act, the Rapid Response team will work with your company to provide information on Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) and the benefits you can receive if your company is certified as trade-affected. Your company, the Rapid Response team, or the workers themselves can file a trade petition with the United States Department of Labor.

TAA and its benefits are provided at no cost to you as an employer and allow your workers to access an even wider array of services than they would otherwise be eligible for. Ask your Rapid Response contact for more information on TAA and the petition process.

Are you considering a Layoff or Downsizing? The Office of Employment and Training's Division of Workforce and Employment Services Rapid Response Team is a free onsite early intervention service offered to businesses and workers affected by layoffs and plant closings.

Trade Petition Process
The first step to receiving TAA benefits and services is to file a petition online or by mail with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Petitions are available online, by downloadable form (available in English and Spanish), or may be obtained from a local Kentucky Career Center office
A Petition may be filed by:
  • a group of two or more workers;
  • a certified union official or representative;
  • an official of the employer/firm;
  • a one-stop agency or partner agency; or
  • a state dislocated worker TAA unit staff.
Filing a petition is typically done in conjunction with immediate rapid response and basic adjustment services to workers. Rapid reemployment is the goal.

After the investigation, which may take up to 40 days to complete, DOL determines group eligibility to apply for TAA benefits and services. Workers in a certified group will be notified by a Kentucky Career Center, at which time they may apply for individual eligibility for benefits and services.

Based on individual eligibility, members of a certified trade petition may receive one or more of the following reemployment trade services available at any Kentucky Career Center office:
  • job search assistance
  • employment counseling
  • case assessment
  • job development
  • supportive services
  • self-directed job search services
  • job search allowances
  • relocation allowances
  • Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) funded training.
  • bi-weekly Trade Readjustment Allowances (TRA) for eligible workers who have exhausted all rights to their Unemployment Compensation benefits
  • Health Coverage Tax Credit (Administered by IRS. Please refer to HCTC / Internal Revenue Service (irs.gov)​).
  • Re-employment Trade Adjustment Assistance (RTAA)
  • on-the-job training 

Training (TAA): TAA training helps trade-impacted workers obtain the skills necessary to gain suitable employment. TAA will pay all tuition, course fees, books and required supplies and equipment and other items or services deemed necessary for the completion of an approved occupational skills training program.

Trade Readjustment Allowance (TRA): Trade Readjustment Allowance (TRA) is a weekly income support payment that is available to trade-impacted workers who are enrolled in a full-time, TAA-approved training program or who have received a Waiver of Training and are actively seeking employment.

The amount of money participants receive through TRA is generally the same as the unemployment insurance benefits they previously received. In this way, TRA benefits act like an extended income support after a participant has exhausted their unemployment benefits.

Reemployment Trade Adjustment Assistance (RTAA)
Reemployment Trade Adjustment Assistance provides a wage supplement for up to two years for trade-impacted workers who are 50 or older and for whom retraining may not be appropriate. RTAA can provide up to 50 percent of the difference between a participant's former trade-impacted wages and their re-employed annual wages of $50,000 or less.

RTAA recipients are eligible for the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC) and relocation allowances.

For additional information, contact Brandon Inman at 502-564-3022 or email: BrandonS.Inman@ky.gov​.

Trade Act Programs Contact Information
U.S. Department of Labor
Employment and Training Administration - Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance, Room N-5428
200 Constitution Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20210
Phone: 202-693-3560 or 1-888-DOL-OTAA (1-888-365-6822),
Fax: 202-693-3584 or 3585

Kentucky Trade Coordinators
Brandon Inman and Lisa Burton
​Phone: 502-782-3022​

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