Aluminum

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This month, two bills have already been introduced in the House of Representatives that show the division among Republican Party members over President Donald Trump’s authority to impose tariffs. On one side of the debate, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) introduced the Global Trade Accountability Act of 2019, which seeks to restore Congress’s constitutional authority over trade and international commerce, including approval on tariffs, duties and quotas. In a brief statement, Davidson stated that the bill seeks to “support the President’s Constitutional authority to negotiate trade deals, and restore Congressional responsibility for reinforcing, improving, and approving trade policy.” The bill would require congressional approval for any “unilateral trade action” by the president – including any of the following actions concerning the importation of an article: (i) a prohibition on the importation of the article; (ii) the imposition of or an increase in a duty applicable to the article; (iii) the imposition or tightening of a tariff-rate quota applicable to the article; (iv) the imposition or tightening of a quantitative restriction on the importation of the article; (v) the suspension, withdrawal or prevention of the application of trade agreement concessions as to the article; or (vi) any other restriction on the importation of the article. Before such trade actions could be implemented, the president would be required to submit to Congress a report providing sufficient details on the proposed trade action, and a joint resolution would have to be approved. Davidson previously introduced the bill in the last session of Congress but the legislation did not advance. It is possible, however, that there may be a shifting of congressional direction on this matter given the ongoing trade dispute with China and recent statements from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that he, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, intends to introduce legislation that would limit the president’s authority to impose tariffs.

The White House has released a fact sheet listing the “historic results” of President Donald Trump’s first two years in office. For international trade, these results are listed:

”NEGOTIATING BETTER DEALS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: President Trump is negotiating fair and balanced trade deals that protect American industries and workers.

  • President Trump negotiated a new

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International trade and international trade disputes were a predominant focus of President Trump and his trade officials throughout 2018. Thompson Hine’s Trump and Trade team has prepared a slide presentation to provide our readers with a broad overview of the most significant trade actions taken by the Trump administration last year. From the renegotiation of…

With growing congressional and business concerns over the backlog of Section 232 product exclusion requests and the lack of transparency in the review and decision-making processes of the Department of Commerce (Commerce), U.S. Senators Pat Toomey, Doug Jones and Thomas Carper submitted a letter November 26, 2018, to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting a…

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) determined December 7, 2018, by a 5-0 unanimous vote of its commissioners that U.S. industry is materially injured by reason of imports of common alloy aluminum sheet from China. This finding follows the determination of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) in early November that such…

On the sidelines of the international G-20 (Group of Twenty) forum in Buenos Aires, Argentina, U.S. President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed today the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), launching the formal process to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). During the signing ceremony,…

On November 7, 2018, the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) issued an affirmative final determination in the antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations of imports of common alloy aluminum sheet from the People’s Republic of China (China). These investigations were self-initiated by the Trump administration last year (see Trump and Trade…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced that President Trump is moving forward with additional tariffs in its Section 301 investigation involving China’s acts, policies and practices related to forced technology transfers and intellectual property rights. The USTR has finalized a third list of Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) subheadings resulting in additional tariffs of $200 billion on imports of Chinese products. The additional tariffs will go into effect September 24, 2018, and will be 10 percent at the start. The USTR has stated that these tariffs will increase to 25 percent on January 1, 2019.

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has amended the exclusion request process for the tariffs on certain steel and aluminum products implemented under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. On March 8, 2018, President Trump exercised his authority under Section 232 and imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports (with certain countries receiving exemptions). U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began collecting the tariffs on March 23, 2018.

BIS has acknowledged that the number of filings has far surpassed expectations – as of August 20, BIS had received more than 38,000 exclusion requests and more than 17,000 objections – amid growing concerns over the importance of a transparent, fair and efficient product exclusion and objection process. The amendments seek to address these concerns and will create a process for rebutting objections filed to exclusion requests. They also attempt to clarify the criteria BIS considers during the review process to grant or deny an exclusion request.

Late Wednesday night, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced targeted relief from the voluntary quotas the United States successfully negotiated with South Korea, Argentina and Brazil on steel, and with Argentina on aluminum. U.S. companies may now apply for product exclusions seeking steel or aluminum from these countries based on insufficient quantity or quality available from U.S. steel or aluminum producers. In such cases, the Department of Commerce has stated that an exclusion from the negotiated quota limits “may be granted and no tariff would be owed.” Previously, the product exclusion request processes were limited to steel and aluminum from countries that were fully subject to the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs of 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively, and did not allow for the submission of product exclusion requests for steel and aluminum products subject to the Section 232 tariffs from countries with negotiated quotas, which allowed imported products within the quotas to be exempt from those tariffs.