Fourteen pro-trade House Democrats are asking Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to quickly advance discussions on how tariffs on Japanese and British steel and aluminum could be lifted. "[D]ownstream users continue to face astonishingly high prices in steel and aluminum," wrote the group, which is led by Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state.
Five Republican Senators filed an amicus brief on Dec. 15 with the U.S. Supreme Court, urging it to take up a case over the limits of the president's authority under the Section 232 national security tariff statute. The brief, signed by Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa.; Mike Crapo, R-Idaho; Bill Cassidy, R-La.; Mike Lee, R-Utah; and Ben Sasse, R-Neb., argues against a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit opinion spurning time limits imposed in the statute. The time limits are crucial to ensuring that "Congress makes the major policy decisions regarding the regulation of foreign commerce," the lawmakers said.
A recent Government Accountability Office report on Section 232 tariff exclusions on steel and aluminum noted that the Commerce Department has tweaked a number of procedures in its exclusion application and decision-making process, but has not updated the guidance on its website to let the public know. It recommended that the department do so.
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The Commerce Department will end 31 general approved exclusions from Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, it said in an interim final rule. A review of public comments submitted after the GAEs were approved in December (see 2012100047) led Commerce to determine 26 steel GAEs and four aluminum GAEs no longer meet the criteria, it said. "As a conforming change to a recent U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) decision, this rule also removes one additional steel GAE, Commerce said. The interim final rule takes effect 15 days after its publication date, which is currently scheduled for Dec. 9.
The leader of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee focused on making it easier for domestic industry to win antidumping and countervailing duty cases and said that the de minimis statute needs to be altered, in a hearing designed to talk about how Chinese practices damage workers, businesses and the environment.
The National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones is asking FTZ-user companies and FTZ grantees to tell them if they hold aluminum or steel from the European Union member countries in their FTZs, and to talk to their senators and representatives about the fact that if there isn't language about FTZs in the proclamation rolling back the tariffs on EU metals, those tariffs will still be due when the metals enter into commerce.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 22-28:
The Bureau of Industry and Security seeks comments by Jan. 21 on its collections of information related to requests for Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff exclusions and objections to them. The agency’s comment request will be followed by submission of the information collections for re-approval by the Office of Management and Budget, and will help BIS “assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden.”
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Deputy USTR Sarah Bianchi stressed the importance of rapidly resolving trade concerns when they arise through the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, and talked about the president's vision for a new economic framework in the Indo-Pacific when they talked with Korea's trade minister, Yeo Han-koo. They agreed to communicate better to support trade facilitation, and to deal with supply chain challenges, emerging technologies and digital trade. According to the U.S. summary of the visit, Tai talked about the challenge posed by market-distorting excess capacity in steel and aluminum. According to the Korea Herald, quoting the Korean trade ministry, Korea asked for the chance to change the tariff rate quotas it earlier agreed to on steel. "We once again delivered our stance and concerns regarding the Section 232 rules, and demanded that the two sides begin negotiations at an early date," the ministry said in a statement. Tai and Yeo also heard from industry representatives on supply chain resiliency and how to foster more sustainable trade.