The Bureau of Industry and Security will give stakeholders another 30 days to weigh in on procedures for evaluating the granting or denial of Section 232 tariff exclusions on imports of steel and aluminum, it said in a Federal Register notice to be published March 16. Comments can be submitted beginning that date at www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain, OMB Control Number 0694-0138.
The Commerce Department hasn't granted a steel or aluminum tariff exclusion since Dec. 17, 2021, and its last denial was posted Oct. 29, 2021. A lobbyist in the trade world said he has unsuccessfully tried to get to the bottom of why the Bureau of Industry and Security doesn't seem to be processing the applications at the moment. He said the Commerce Department told one office on Capitol Hill "there is no problem" and "that it's all functioning normally."
China's lack of worker rights, weak environmental standards "and anticompetitive subsidies are the hallmarks of China’s artificial comparative advantage. It is an advantage that puts others out of business and violates any notion of fair competition," the annual trade policy agenda from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said, and the administration is looking to advance fair competition "through all available avenues," including coordinating with other countries, using existing trade agreements, or new tools, it said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 21-27:
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Correction: Goods imported under Section 232 tariff exclusions count toward quota amounts under an agreement to set tariff rate quotas on Japanese steel (see 2202070064).
Ohio's two senators and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., are asking the commerce secretary and U.S. trade representative to convince Canada and Mexico "to either reduce their exports of down-stream GOES products to the United States, or utilize more U.S. GOES in the production of those products." In a letter that leaned heavily on the Commerce Department's conclusion that the import of transformer components from neighboring countries is a national security threat, they said grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) is produced by Cleveland-Cliffs in two locations in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and supports 2,000 jobs. When a 25% tariff was imposed on steel, the market shifted so that cores, core parts and laminates became the imports for transformers, rather than the steel. Imports of GOES dropped by 56% the year after the tariffs began.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is asking for comments on the Section 232 exclusion process, including the request, objection, rebuttal and surrebuttal process, the standards of review, transparency of the process, and General Approved Exclusions. Officials are particularly interested in hearing ideas about how to reduce the volume of submission errors and rejected filings in the exclusions portal; whether reducing the length or type of attachments could speed the processing of requests; whether there should be a public summary of confidential business information underpinning exclusion requests or objections; whether there should be public disclosure of delivery times in requests or objections; whether evidence supporting requests or objections should have to be from the last 90 days; and how to streamline the online forms. Comments should be filed at regulations.gov, docket number BIS-2021-0042, by March 28.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 31-Feb. 6:
The Biden administration will allow 1.25 million metric tons of steel to enter under a tariff rate quota, it said Feb. 7, as long as those products are melted and poured in Japan. That would be more than the U.S. imported from Japan in 2019 and 2020, and more than last year -- preliminary data says that the U.S. imported about 989,000 metric tons of steel from Japan in 2021.