The Bureau of Industry and Security is proposing changes to the exclusion process for Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs to improve the accuracy of exclusion requests and objections, and generally improve the efficiency of the process, the agency said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Former President Donald Trump is considering making hiking tariffs on all imports a plank of his reelection campaign, as he discussed recently on Fox Business. According to a Washington Post story, although Trump said on TV that he liked the idea of a 10% duty on all imports, he has not settled on a number yet. Trump's former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in January 2021 that all countries should have a 10% to 12% tariff on all imports, with higher tariffs for particularly important products (see 2101260048).
A World Trade Organization dispute panel rejected China's claim that its retaliatory tariffs in response to Section 232 tariffs were justified because the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs were a safeguard in disguise.
Failure to maintain a "robust system" of submitting and monitoring their own Section 232 exclusions could cost importers millions of dollars in "duty savings opportunities," said a blog post from law firm Crowell & Moring Aug. 15. A new report from the Government Accountability Office that found more than $32 million in unpaid Section 232 duties on steel and aluminum because the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security and CBP hadn't detected that the exclusion had been filed (see 2307210064).
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo that she should not intervene in professional staff's determination of whether antidumping and countervailing duties -- they range from 43% to 294% -- should be imposed on imported tin mill steel products, used in making cans for packaging food.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security completed a round of interagency review for a final rule that could revise the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff exclusions process. BIS sent the rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs June 27 (see 2306280016), and the rule was sent back Aug. 10 with some changes.
A bipartisan duo introduced a bill in the House that would not allow future Section 232 tariffs or quotas without congressional approval, and would give Congress the ability to end the current steel and aluminum tariffs and quotas.
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White said that during his meeting with Mexico's undersecretary of economy for foreign trade, Alejandro Encinas, he "underscored the need to address the recent surge of Mexican steel and aluminum exports to the United States in accordance with the 2019 Joint Statement by the United States and Mexico on Section 232 Duties on Steel and Aluminum, and ensuring greater transparency with regard to Mexico’s steel and aluminum imports from third countries."