CBP Could Address Some Issues With Section 232 Tariffs on Derivatives Very Soon
CBP will very soon release a FAQ on some outstanding issues related to complying with the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives, particularly derivatives outside of chapters 73 and 76 (see 2503140059), according to a CBP official speaking during CBP's bi-weekly ACE trade support call.
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"We've been looking at all of the emails you've been sending in, believe it or not, to the trade remedy box, and we've been taking them back and trying to find a lot of the common issues to provide responses to FAQs," Alex Amdur, CBP director of the AD/CVD policy and programs division, said on the March 20 call. That FAQ could tentatively be posted on CBP's website later in the day on March 20 or on March 21, or "it could take a day or two to get up there," he said.
According to Amdur, the FAQ will address issues including how to report melt-and-pour for steel derivatives if there is no melt-and-pour country, as well as how to report the countries of smelt-and-cast for aluminum derivatives. This issue is particularly for countries that may not actually have steel or aluminum within the product but the product is still classified within the Harmonized Tariff Schedule code that is subject to the Section 232 tariffs.
It also will address questions about how to report the derivative if the aluminum or steel is of an unknown origin.
"For a derivative steel, if you don't know, you can report 'OTH' or other for the country of melt-and-pour, and then, once you get the information with the exact country, you can adjust that as necessary through a post-summary correction," Amdur said.
Amdur noted that the FAQ would provide greater detail and that his remarks on the call were just a brief preview.
"For aluminum derivatives, it's a little different, because you not only have the 25% duty, you also have the 200% duty on the Russia aluminum that's still effective," Amdur continued. "So the concern is that if, basically, you have a derivative aluminum product, and you don't know where the aluminum is smelted or cast, that some of that might be actually from Russia. So, you need to consider that an option for you to do is to ... report it as Russia, the smelt or cast, and then again, once you get the actual information, then you can use a post-summary correction to update it."
Amdur also said there are some issues that have arisen where a product with derivatives is within an HTS classification covered by the derivative measures, even though that product has no steel or aluminum. However, ACE still requires brokers to report the country of melt-and-pour and smelt-and-cast.
"We understand the quandary you're in. So in that case, again, slightly different answer for steel and aluminum. So, first of all, for steel -- again, this is where there's no steel in the good, but you have to report the country of melt and pour -- you can report the country reported at the country of origin of the non-steel article as the steel country melt and pour," Amdur said.
For aluminum, "we're going to recommend to report 'Y,' or Yes, for the secondary country smelt, and report the country reported [as] the country of origin of the non-aluminum article as a secondary country of smelt and as the country of cast," he continued.