Section 232 Investigations

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On February 7, 2023, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued an opinion in PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. v. United States et al., Case No. 2021-2066, reversing a lower court decision and upholding the imposition of additional Section 232 national security tariffs on derivatives of certain imported…

On September 21, 2022, after a year-long Section 232 investigation, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that rare earth neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnet imports threaten national security. The investigation was initiated in September 2021 due to concerns that “critical national security systems rely on NdFeB permanent magnets, including fighter aircraft and…

On June 27, 2022, President Joseph Biden issued a Presidential Proclamation announcing that the United States was increasing the duty rate to 35% ad valorem on certain products from Russia effective July 28, 2022. The White House indicated that this higher tariff will affect “more than 570 groups of Russian products worth approximately $2.3 billion”;…

In a June 9, 2022 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit or CAFC) upheld the decision by the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) dismissing Universal Steel Products Holding’s challenge to Section 232 tariffs that the Trump administration placed on steel imports.  The plaintiffs had earlier challenged both…

On May 5, 2022, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) announced the initiation of a general factfinding investigation that will examine the impact of tariffs on U.S. imports under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 in effect as of March 15, 2022.  The…

On March 22, 2022, the United States and the United Kingdom reached agreement on allowing “sustainable volumes” of UK steel and aluminum products to enter the U.S. market without the application of Section 232 tariffs. The Joint Statement notes that both the United States and UK will monitor steel and aluminum trade between the countries…

On February 10, 2022, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published in the Federal Register a Request for Public Comments seeking comments on the Section 232 product exclusion process, including the responsiveness of the process to market demand and enhanced consultation with U.S. firms and labor organizations.  The request for comments…

On February 7, 2022, the United States and Japan announced an agreement to allow “historically-based sustainable volumes of Japanese steel products to enter the U.S. market without the application of Section 232 tariffs.” Under the agreement, the United States will implement a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) on steel imports from Japan, effective April 1, 2022. Under…

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…