On July 30, 2019, JSW Steel (USA), Inc. (JSW) filed a complaint against the United States and, specifically, the Department of Commerce (Department) for denying its product exclusion requests for certain steel imports that otherwise are subject to a 25 percent tariff under President Donald Trump’s March 2018 proclamation implementing such tariffs under Section 232
Section 232 Investigations
New CBP Statistics Show $30 Billion in Collections from Tariff Actions
According to recently released U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, the agency has assessed, as a result of tariffs implemented through U.S. government actions under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and Sections 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, approximately $30.9 billion in import duties as of July…
President Trump Signs Third Executive Order Affecting Buy American Act of 1933
On July 15, 2019, President Donald Trump signed an executive order, Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials, to further promote the principles underlying the Buy American Act of 1933. In remarks to the press, the president stated that “Early in my presidency, I ordered the federal government to live by two very…
President Trump Declines to Implement Section 232 Action on Uranium Imports, Establishes Working Group Instead
President Donald Trump has issued a presidential memorandum concluding the Section 232 Investigation into the effect of uranium imports on U.S. national security and declining at this time to take any further action on uranium imports. Instead, the president is establishing a United States Nuclear Fuel Working Group (Working Group) to develop recommendations for reviving…
Department of Commerce to Launch Special Section 232 Steel and Aluminum Exclusion Request Portal
The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has published an Interim Final Rule in the Federal Register announcing that it has developed a specific portal (i.e., the ‘‘232 Exclusions Portal’’) for persons submitting exclusion requests, objections to exclusion requests, rebuttals and surrebuttals to replace the use of the federal rulemaking portal (…
United States Removes Section 232 National Security Steel and Aluminum Tariffs on Canada and Mexico
On May 17, 2019, the United States, Canada and Mexico concluded an agreement in which the United States agreed to remove the Section 232 tariffs for steel and aluminum imports from those countries and Canada and Mexico agreed to remove all retaliatory tariffs imposed on U.S. goods. Accordingly, President Donald Trump issued proclamations declaring that…
Trump Administration Reduces Turkey’s Section 232 Tariffs from 50 to 25 Percent, Removes Turkey from GSP Program and Subjects Turkey to Section 201 Safeguard Measures
On May 16, 2019, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation reducing Section 232 tariffs on steel imports from Turkey from 50 percent to 25 percent, which had been in effect since August 2018 (see Trump and Trade Update of August 17, 2018). This tariff decrease will become effective May 21, 2019, at 12:01 a.m.…
President Trump Delays Implementation of Section 232 Tariffs on Imports of Automobiles and Automobile Parts
President Donald Trump today announced that his administration would delay for six months any action on the determination of the Department of Commerce (Commerce) in the Section 232 national security investigation into imports of automobiles and automobile parts. This investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 was self-initiated by Commerce in…
President Trump Imposes Additional Sanctions on Iran, Targeting Iron, Steel, Aluminum and Copper Sectors
President Donald Trump has announced further action against Iran by imposing sanctions on its iron, steel, aluminum and copper sectors, the country’s largest non-petroleum-related sources of export revenue. In an executive order, the president implemented blocking sanctions on any person determined by the secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the secretary of State,…
WTO Dispute Settlement Panel’s Decision to Rule on National Security Exception May Have a Major Impact on Trump Administration’s Section 232 Tariffs
A World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel ruling, Russia – Measures Concerning Traffic in Transit, issued last week on a member’s use of the WTO’s so-called “national security exception” under Article XXI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) may have a significant impact on the Trump administration’s application of…
