Trade Cases

Section 232 Exclusion Requests and the Tariff

April 15, 2018

For those of you who may be new to Steel Market Update or haven’t been paying attention to President Trump over the past few months, the President has issued 25 percent tariffs on foreign steel coming from countries other than: Canada, Mexico, Australia, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil and member countries of the European Union. The EU countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Steel Market Update receives questions from readers and, if they have legal or policy implications, we often refer them to Lewis Leibowitz, an international trade attorney in Washington, D.C., who provides responses of general application.

decision We received a question from a reader recently about pending product exclusion requests. The reader asked if the 25% tariff on steel products might be refunded if a pending product exclusion request was later granted. Leibowitz responded: “Commerce posts exclusion requests online after initial review. Commerce has announced that if an exclusion request for a particular product has been posted before that product is entered through Customs, then the tariffs should be refunded if the request is ultimately approved.”

In other words, a product exclusion request need not have been granted to avoid the 25% tariff. “However,” Leibowitz continued, “your shipment arrives before the exclusion request is posted online, the duties will not be refunded. There is no guarantee how long after a request has been submitted it will be posted. The posting refers to the exclusion request itself, not the submission of entry documents.”

Commerce has posted 64 steel exclusion requests on regulations.gov so far. There are believed to be as many as several hundred requests having been made. Many of these are still pending.

SMU Note: Lewis Leibowitz will be available at the beginning of our 8th SMU Steel Summit Conference on August 27th at 1:30 PM ET to answer your questions on Section 232 tariffs, excluded countries and products, antidumping and countervailing duties as well as circumvention issues. You can find out more about our program, the schedule, costs to attend, hotel, location and how to register either online: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com or by contacting our offices at 772-932-7538.

If you have questions about the exclusion process, we recommend that you contact your trade attorney. If you do not have a trade attorney and would like to speak to Lewis Leibowitz, he can be reached in his office in Washington, D.C., at (202) 776-1142.