Trade Cases

New Portal for Section 232 Exclusion Requests

Written by Sandy Williams


Beginning today, a new portal is available from the U.S. Department of Commerce for those who need to file exclusion requests under the Section 232 measures on steel and aluminum. Companies can request to have products they import excluded from the 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum if their needs cannot be met domestically.

The “232 Exclusion Portal” replaces the original one at www.regulations.gov. All new requests should be submitted on the new portal. Previous exclusion requests will remain on the older system to receive objections, rebuttals and surrebuttals until the request receives a final decision.

Commerce hopes the changes will “streamline the exclusions process while enhancing data integrity and quality controls.” Users can access a user guide to help with the submission process at https://www.commerce.gov/page/section-232-investigations.

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Do we want the benefits of the Section 232 tariffs to flow to the bottom lines of foreign steel and aluminum producers or to the US government and, ultimately, domestic manufacturers and their workers? In our view, the answer is simple. Section 232 exceptions do nothing more than lead to underserved profits for foreign manufacturers who are harming the US industrial base. That revenue could be used to pursue the Trump administration’s other policy priorities - such as deficit reduction or expanded tax cuts.