International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Jan. 21-24 in case they were missed.
The Presidential Proclamation establishing new Section 232 tariffs on finished goods of steel and aluminum and the annexes detailing the covered goods is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Jan. 29. The new 10 percent tariffs on aluminum goods and 25 percent tariffs on steel goods are set to take effect on Feb. 8 (see 2001250003).
When the new 25 percent Section 232 tariffs go into effect on finished steel products, approximately $800 million in goods will be affected, according to International Trade Commission data for the last full year of imports. That does not include more than $100 million in imports from South Korea, Mexico and Canada that will be exempt from the new policy.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security posted the two annexes from the recently announced expansion of Section 232 tariffs on goods made from steel and aluminum. The annex for aluminum products lists six subheadings covering types of wire and automobile stampings. The annex for the steel products includes four subheadings that cover types of nails, tacks and automobile stampings.
Importers and domestic producers are waiting to find out which steel and aluminum finished products will be hit with 25 percent and 10 percent tariffs, respectively (see 2001250003), because the administration said tariffs on the raw materials that make those products have not benefited domestic producers enough.
Despite resumed talk about tariffs on European autos, U.S. Chamber of Commerce officials say they are heartened by the first signs of progress in months for trade talks between the European Union and the United States. Marjorie Chorlins, the Chamber's senior vice president of European affairs, said with a new team at the European Commission, and the positive comments after the meeting in Davos, Switzerland, between President Donald Trump and EC President Ursula von der Leyen, the business community is feeling new hope for an improvement in relations. The officials spoke during a Jan. 24 conference call.
A class action lawsuit filed at the Court of International Trade Jan. 16 could result in billions of dollars in refunds to all importers that have paid Section 232 tariffs on steel products, though its chances of success are still unclear, and any payment is a long way off, lawyers say.
Even though steel and aluminum tariffs have been in place since March 2018, the number of exclusion requests continues to grow, according to an updated analysis from the free market-oriented Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The new portal opened June 13, and from that time to Aug. 27, companies filed an average of 4,427 requests a month. Between Aug. 28 and Dec. 6, the monthly average was 7,190. Members of Congress have repeatedly criticized what they see as arbitrary decisions, the fact that each exclusion is limited to the requestor, and the influence of domestic steel and aluminum producers on Commerce decisions (see 1910170066 and 1910300058).
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose department refused to release the report explaining why auto imports are a national security threat, said people don't understand how the Section 232 statute operates. The president gave the U.S. trade representative 180 days to see if he could negotiate with Europe a mitigation of the security threat represented by auto imports. But when that 180 days expired, and Trump took no action, that doesn't mean the case is closed, Ross told Bloomberg.
A U.S. producer of pipe used in the oil and gas industry filed a lawsuit Jan. 17 challenging the denial of exclusions from Section 232 tariffs on imported steel pipe it uses as inputs. Borusan Mannesmann Pipe U.S. says the Commerce Department relied on incomplete and inaccurate statements in objections from other steel producers to find that the company’s imports could be replaced by domestic production and should not be excluded from Section 232 duties.