Section 232 (Aluminum)

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On January 24, 2020, President Donald Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation directing the Department of Commerce to adjust the tariff rate on imports of derivative steel and aluminum products into the United States. In earlier proclamations (see Trump and Trade Update of March 8, 2018), the president directed Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to…

While no formal notice has been published by the Department of Commerce yet, President Donald Trump tweeted today that Section 232 tariffs will be re-imposed on imports of steel and aluminum products from Argentina and Brazil. In an early morning tweet, the president announced that “Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation…

In an October 28, 2019 memorandum for Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, the Department of Commerce’s Office of Inspector General (IG) issued a “management alert” over concerns about the “lack of transparency that contributes to the appearance of improper influence in decision-making” for the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff exclusion process. While not requesting…

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 (…

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…

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…

On March 6, 2019, during a meeting of the Foreign Trade Commission of the Mexican Senate, Luz Maria de la Mora-Sanchez, Foreign Trade Undersecretary of Mexico’s Ministry of Economy, announced that the Mexican government is planning to include additional items on its list of U.S. products subject to retaliatory measures, which were originally imposed on…

On February 15, 2019, President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 (Act) that fully funds the government for the remainder of the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2019. With Congress and the president agreeing on these appropriations, a second partial government shutdown was averted. Included in the Act is a provision authorizing additional…

As reported in our post of January 25, 2019, members of the 116th session of Congress are seeking ways to address President Donald Trump’s authority to unilaterally impose tariffs under various statutes. This trend continued on January 30, 2019, with the bipartisan introduction of the Bicameral Congressional Trade Authority Act. Introduced by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Pat Toomey (R-PA), this bill would restore to Congress its Article I constitutional authority over foreign trade and commerce, specifically focusing on tariffs implemented under the claim of “national security.” The senators stated that recent Trump administration Section 232 actions have been economically disruptive and have damaged U.S. relationships with its allies, including Mexico, Canada, Japan, the EU and India.
Continue Reading Additional Legislation Introduced in Congress Seeks to Curtail Executive Branch’s Authority to Implement Section 232 Tariffs

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…