Section 232 Investigations

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On December 29, 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued several guidance documents through its Cargo Systems Messaging Service concerning recent Presidential Proclamations that established the tariff rate quota (TRQ) process for imports of aluminum and steel articles from the member countries of the European Union (EU).  See Update of December 29, 2021 for…

On December 28, 2021, President Joseph Biden issued two proclamations – Adjusting Imports of Steel into the United States and Adjusting Imports of Aluminum into the United States.  In each proclamation, the president acknowledged that:

“the United States has successfully concluded discussions with the EU [European Union] on behalf of its member countries on…

On October 30, 2021, the United States and the European Union (EU) reached an agreement regarding the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the EU that were implemented during the Trump administration. Under the agreement, the United States will replace the current Section 232 duties with tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for covered EU…

On September 21, 2021, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) initiated an investigation to determine the effects on U.S. national security of imports of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets (sometimes referred to as neodymium magnets, neo magnets, or rare earth magnets). According to a Commerce press release, “critical national security systems rely on NdFeB permanent magnets, including…

On August 23, 2021, the plaintiff group led by Transpacific Steel LLC filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) requesting a rehearing by all the Federal Circuit judges of the July 2021 three-judge panel decision reversing the ruling of the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) that…

On May 4, 2020, former Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the initiation of a Section 232 investigation into whether certain transformer components used in electrical power grids are imported in quantities that threaten national security. See SmarTrade Update of May 11, 2020. The investigation focused on transformers and transformer components (i.e.,…

On June 2, 2020, former Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the initiation of a Section 232 investigation into whether the quantities or circumstances of imports of vanadium into the United States threaten to impair U.S. national security. This investigation was the result of a petition filed by U.S. producers AMG Vanadium LLC (Cambridge, Ohio)…

On July 13, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) issued a majority 2-1 opinion reversing the ruling of the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) that former President Donald J. Trump violated the provisions of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (Section 232) by increasing tariffs…