The United Steelworkers, the Steel Manufacturers Association, the American Iron and Steel Institute and two other trade groups wrote to President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 11, telling him that weakening or removing 25% tariffs and quotas on imported steel “before major steel producing countries eliminate their overcapacity and the subsidies and other trade-distorting policies that have fueled the steel crisis will only invite a new surge in imports with devastating effects to domestic steel producers and their workers.” The letter said the Section 232 tariffs allowed idled mills to reopen and laid-off workers to regain their jobs. “Continuation of the tariffs and quotas is essential to ensuring the viability of the domestic steel industry in the face of ... massive and growing excess steel capacity,” they said, pointing to China, Vietnam and Turkey as countries that did not slow down steel production during the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Dec. 28-31 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 21-27:
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The new General Approved Exclusions from Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum will be deployed in ACE as of 7 a.m. Dec. 29, CBP said in a Dec. 23 CSMS message. The Commerce Department announced the new GAEs in a Dec. 14 notice (see 2012100047). The GAEs exclude 108 entire Harmonized Tariff Schedule classifications from the tariffs on steel and 15 classifications from the aluminum tariffs, CBP said. “GAEs may be used by any importer and have no quantitative limit,” it said. “Exclusions are effective starting December 29, 2020, and no retroactive relief will be granted.”
Metal importers and a senior Republican staffer in the House of Representatives agreed that the Commerce Department's revisions to its Section 232 exclusions process are somewhat of an improvement, but they diverge in their opinions of how helpful the changes will be for the industry. The revisions were announced in an interim final rule published Dec. 14 (see 2012100047); some elements have already taken effect, and others take effect Dec. 29. However, the agency is still accepting comments on the revisions through Feb. 12, 2021.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 14-20:
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
New licensing requirements for aluminum products are now set to begin Jan. 25, 2021, under a Commerce Department final rule creating a new Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis System. Similar to the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System in place since 2005, the new scheme requires importers of aluminum or their customs brokers to submit information in an online portal to obtain an automatically issued license, then submit the license number with entry summary documentation.
Tomas Baert, head of trade and agriculture at the European delegation in Washington, said the European Union is looking for a “strong and united front with the United States” on trade as the region and the world recover from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Baert, who was speaking on a webinar Dec. 15 hosted by the European American Chamber of Commerce, said that while the Trump era was marked with “turbulence and tension” in trade, Europe feels like it escaped mostly unharmed, since there were not “massive tariffs” imposed on exported cars, trucks and auto parts, as was threatened.