The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security seeks comments on its proposed information collection that is part of the procedure for submitting objections to requested exclusions from the Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel, Commerce said in a Feb. 7 notice. Last September, BIS produced an interim final rule that made changes to the process for requesting exclusions from Section 232 tariffs and quotas on steel and aluminum products (see 1809060035). BIS is now seeking comments and recommendations on the information collection proposal that it has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for clearance. Comments are due March 11.
Section 232 Tariffs
The United States currently maintains a 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% on tariff on aluminum imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. In 2018, the Trump administration imposed Section 232 Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the United States, citing national security concerns. The U.S. agreed to lift tariffs on Canada and Mexico after the signing of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and reached deals with the European Union, Japan and other countries to replace the tariffs with quotas for steel and aluminum imports into the U.S.
Tariffs on allies make it harder to convince China to change its abuses, senators said, as members from both parties held a press conference to criticize Trump administration tariff policies. They were kicking off a lobbying effort from business owners and farmers around the country called Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, which began Feb. 6.
The House companion bill to Sen. Pat Toomey's attempt to roll back Section 232 tariffs (see 1901300022) was co-authored by two Democrats and two Republicans, and one of those Republicans, Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said his near-term goal is to get 50 co-sponsors. So far, there are 17. One of the lead co-authors, Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., has been on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee for years, and Gallagher is hoping he can get some traction in the committee. A spokesman for the new Trade Subcommittee chairman did not respond to a question about the bill by press time.
A bill that could undo the steel and aluminum tariffs -- and would prevent any other Section 232 tariffs from taking effect without congressional approval -- needs more support to convince Senate leadership to allow a vote on it, its author acknowledged. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said repeatedly last year that efforts like this would be vetoed, and therefore are a waste of time. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said that having 11 co-sponsors on the day of introduction is strong, but he added: "We obviously need to have much broader support for this in order to persuade Senator McConnell to devote floor time to it."
Bipartisan bills were introduced in the House and Senate to give Congress a veto over potential Section 232 tariffs on autos and auto parts and the ability to rescind the tariffs and quotas on steel and aluminum. The push in the Senate is led by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who also tried to move a similar bill last year, as well as Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and a half-dozen Republican colleagues told President Donald Trump that the decline in the stock market since October is due partly to higher tariffs, and they used his own words against him to argue that steel and aluminum tariffs should be lifted on Canada and Mexico. Their letter, sent Jan. 28, starts by quoting a Trump tweet from March 2018 that said steel and aluminum tariffs in North America "will only come off if a new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed." They noted that he signed the new NAFTA at the end of November, but that the tariffs haven't been lifted.
Leaders of auto, aluminum and farm interest groups are all pushing for the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs to be lifted on Canada and Mexico, as the administration said would happen once NAFTA was renegotiated. But none of the groups will make their support for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement contingent on the tariffs being lifted.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 14-20:
The Council of the European Union passed its negotiating directives for free trade talks with the U.S. on Jan. 18, and as expected, agriculture is not part of the scope. The EU also said it would require the lifting of the Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel before any deal is finalized. "These two proposed negotiating directives will enable the Commission to work on removing tariffs and non-tariff barriers to transatlantic trade in industrial goods, key goals of the July Joint Statement," EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said.
The Court of International Trade could be a venue for at least two more big cases involving constitutional implications this year, Crowell & Moring lawyer Daniel Cannistra said in the firm's litigation forecast for 2019. The next challenge may involve the Section 301 tariffs and whether a president "can unilaterally rewrite the tariff schedule for the purpose of negotiating trade agreements," Cannistra said. "The other constitutional issues that appear to be on the CIT’s horizon include the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is sure to contain questions concerning executive authority over trade." The CIT is currently considering the constitutionality of the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum (see 1812190044), and that case is "likely to be resolved in 2019," Cannistra said. According to Cannistra, "the consequences of these decisions will be profound. For example, if the CIT upholds one of these administration trade policies, what will it mean to a company’s global supply chain? Will production need to be relocated from one country to another? These shifts are not made overnight; the court’s decisions will affect companies for years."