The Bureau of Industry and Security sent a final rule for interagency review that could make changes to the exclusion process for Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. BIS sent the rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Feb. 15, about six months after it published proposed changes aimed at improving the accuracy and efficiency of exclusion requests and objections (see 2308250035).
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.
Automakers and their suppliers are telling the Biden administration in comments submitted ahead of an upcoming report that not having a form for certificate of origin has paradoxically made compliance more difficult. They also said that companies are having a difficult time certifying how much workers in the supply chain earn, and that the absence of final USMCA regulations are all problems for trade compliance in the more than three years since USMCA took effect.
The International Trade Commission posted the 2024 Basic Edition of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The new HTS implements the restoration of AGOA benefits for Mauritania and their removal for the Central African Republic, Gabon, Niger and Uganda, as well as a lengthy list of 10-digit-level changes for fruits and vegetables, chemicals, medicaments and recycled aluminum. Changes were effective as of Jan. 1 unless otherwise noted.
Presidential proclamations for Section 232 steel tariff rate quotas for EU countries, and for tariff rate quotas for aluminum, were published Dec. 28, with no changes to aggregate volume from the last two-year deal. The new quotas will last through the end of 2025.
CBP is still “preparing” its 2024 tariff-rate quotas for steel and aluminum from the EU, and the “trade should proceed following existing 2023 guidance until the 2024 program is finalized,” the agency said in a pair of quota bulletins.
The U.S. will grant new Section 232 exclusions for steel and aluminum imports from the EU as part of a deal that will also extend the tariff rate quotas on EU steel and aluminum and avoid EU retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.
Fourteen senators, led by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., demanded that the Biden administration "set a clear deadline" for Mexico to enforce its 2019 joint agreement on steel and aluminum. That agreement lifted 25% tariffs on Mexican steel but said that the countries would monitor for export surges.
Seventeen senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are asking the U.S. trade representative to reach "an expedited agreement with the European Union" so that tariffs don't return on exported whiskey Jan. 1. That tariff would be 50% under the schedule the EU imposed as retaliation for the Section 232 tariffs on European steel and aluminum exports.
A bill introduced by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, would allow importers who paid Section 232 tariffs on steel or aluminum products that were later granted exclusions to get that money back, even if the deadline for liquidation or reliquidation has passed.
The top trade negotiator for the EU, Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, said the EU's political leadership sees "no prospect to agree on a concept" for a global arrangement on steel, to box out unfairly traded steel and privilege steel made with less carbon intensity.