The Section 232 Presidential Proclamations 9704 and 9705 to protect United States’ national security issued on March 8, 2018 on steel and aluminum will come into effect at 12:01am EDT on March 23, 2018. An extensive list of steel and aluminum articles will be subject to 25% and 10% additional duties respectively.
As of this writing, affected goods with country of origin Canada or Mexico are exempt. Other country exemptions are likely but no official pronouncement has been made. An earlier Livingston Trade News article described the Section 232 actions in detail.
As promised in the Proclamations, the Department of Commerce (DOC) and Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) have issued an interim final rule to amend the National Security Industrial Base Regulations on how individual importers may request exclusions from the tariffs and how other importers may file objections to submitted exclusions. The BIS published information about requests and objections for steel and aluminum.
The BIS will accept comments on the interim final rule no later than May 18, 2018. All exclusion requests and objections to submitted exclusion requests must be in electronic form and submitted to the Federal rulemaking portal. Except for personally identifiable information, the information submitted will be subject to public review, public inspection, and copying.
Requesting exclusions
The Proclamations authorize the DOC to grant exclusions upon request of affected parties if the steel or aluminum articles are determined not to be produced in the U.S. in a sufficient and reasonably available amount, or of a satisfactory quality, or based upon specific national security considerations. Such relief shall be provided for any article only after a request for exclusion is made by a directly affected party located in the U.S. This process is separate from the process by which countries may seek exemptions.
Only individuals or organizations using steel or aluminum articles identified in the Proclamations in business activities (e.g. construction, manufacturing, or supplying to users) in the U.S. may submit exclusion requests with respect to that Proclamation. This limitation recognizes the close relation of the economic welfare of the country to national security by affording those who contribute to that economic welfare through business activities in the U.S. the opportunity to submit exclusion requests based on particular economic and national security considerations. Allowing individuals or organizations not engaged in business activities in the U.S. to seek exclusion requests could undermine the adjustment of imports that the President determined was necessary to address the threat to national security posed by the current import of steel and aluminum articles.
Approved exclusions will be made on a product basis and will be limited to the individual or organization that submitted the specific exclusion request, unless the DOC approves a broader application of the product-based exclusion request to apply to additional importers. Other individuals or organizations that wish to submit an exclusion request for a steel or aluminum product already approved for exclusion may also submit an exclusion request. A separate exclusion request must be submitted on each distinct type and dimension of product to be imported.
The downloadable forms for filing a request follow the same structure, but have different criteria based on the differences between the steel and aluminum. Separate exclusion requests must be submitted for each unique product falling within a common Harmonized Tariff System subheading. Also, separate exclusion requests must be submitted for products falling in more than one 10-digit statistical reporting number.
Information required
The request is an extensive five-page form. In brief, the information required includes:
- Requesting organization information including parent company, importer of record, and authorized contact.
- Usage and processing information.
- Product information including physical properties, standards specifications, chemical composition.
- Commercial names of the product.
- Detailed description of the use to support US national security requirements.
- Country of origin, country of export, quantities, manufacturer, current supplier.
- Product availability information.
- Certification by authorized organization official.
Timing
Requests will be open for public review after being posted to the federal rulemaking portal.
- During the initial 30 days, U.S. parties may file objections to the exclusion request.
- There is no time limit for submitting exclusion requests.
- After this initial 30 day period, approximately 60 days will be necessary for complete review and vetting of the Exclusion Request and any related Objection Filings.
- The total processing time for exclusion requests is estimated at 90 days.
- Exclusions will be valid for 12-months.
Objections to exclusions
Any individual or organization in the U.S. may file an objection to an Exclusion Request.
Information Required: Similar to the Exclusion Request, there is a three-page form to complete that includes:
- Organization information.
- Reasons for the objection.
- Identification of US capacity and plant utilization.
- Suitability of the objector’s product compared to the exclusion requester.
- Chemical composition, specifications
- Production capability
- Certification by authorized organization official.
Need help with your exclusion request?
Livingston’s trade experts can lend a hand. We can help you complete and submit the required documentation to the DOC, and ensure you meet all the prescribed guidelines.
Contact us at simplify@livingstonintl.com or 1-800-837-1063.