While grain-oriented electrical steel is subject to Section 232 tariffs, the domestic GOES producer says that electrical steel laminations and cores produced in Mexico and Canada continue to imperil the jobs at their mills. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., represent the workers at those mills, and they, along with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., have proposed an amendment to the bipartisan infrastructure bill that would instruct the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to negotiate with Canada and Mexico in order to get them to agree to measures curtailing their exports if they are so numerous that they damage the business of Cleveland-Cliffs.
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The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 26 - Aug. 1:
After the Commerce Department released the outstanding Section 232 reports (see 2107290039), the lawyers for a vanadium exporter cheered the outcome. The Trump administration initiated a national security investigation into vanadium imports, but the Biden administration made the decision that vanadium imports do not threaten national security.
The Commerce Department posted its Section 232 investigation reports on whether national security is threatened by imports of vanadium, transformers and transformer inputs made from grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), titanium sponge and uranium. All the investigations were initiated under the Trump administration, but the most recently completed investigation on vanadium was finished after President Joe Biden took office (see 2103020027).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 19-25:
In a report accompanying the spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security, House appropriators said they still want a briefing on its efforts to improve automated cargo processing, including scanning at land ports of entry. The report directs the agency to provide the briefing within 60 days of the spending bill's signing. They also asked for a brief within 60 days on how CBP's two-year-old strategy to interdict opioids is going, and what they will do next. They noted that since 2018, Congress has provided more than $200 million in support of interdiction, including money for international mail and consignment facilities, and that it expects CBP and the U.S. Postal Service to have higher capture rates. They also asked for a report within 120 days on whether duties on imported aluminum are being properly assessed when the aluminum "exempt from certain tariffs" is entering the U.S. The report does not say whether they are concerned that aluminum from countries not covered by Section 232 is being wrongly taxed, or whether parties that have exclusions are not receiving the benefits of the exclusions. A press aide did not respond to questions on this part of the report by press time.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
President Donald Trump did not violate procedural timelines when he raised tariffs on Turkish steel from 25 to 50% in August 2018, beyond the 90-day deadline and 15-day implementation period for initial Section 232 tariffs, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a July 13 opinion. Reversing a Court of International Trade decision, the Federal Circuit threw a wrench in a key argument against certain Section 232 tariffs that action beyond the statutory timelines should not be allowed.
The president may impose greater Section 232 national security tariffs beyond the 105-day timeframe for action set out in the statute, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a July 13 ruling. Overturning a lower court ruling, the Federal Circuit found that the underlying law's deadline for the president to take "action" can refer to a "plan of action" carried out over a period of time following the 105-day deadline. That authority is not unlimited, though, in that modifications must be related to the underlying reasoning for the tariffs and those reasons can't be "stale," CAFC said.
The Commerce Department released a redacted version July 6 of its Section 232 report on the national security implications of U.S. imports of autos and auto parts. The Bureau of Industry and Security posted the report and its appendices, dated Feb. 17, 2019. Then-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested two scenarios for tariffs that the Trump administration could impose if USMCA negotiations weren't productive. No tariffs were imposed as a result of the report, but the possibility of tariffs remained a threat for years after.