On the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the White House said that, beginning March 10, there will be a 200% tariff on Russian aluminum exports, including derivative products, and, beginning on April 10, aluminum articles from other countries that used any aluminum from Russia also will be tariffed at 200%, unless those third countries also impose 200% tariffs on imported Russian aluminum.
A bipartisan group of senators signed a Feb. 14 letter urging the Biden administration to take action against a surge of Mexican steel imports. The letter said tariffs can be reintroduced under a 2019 agreement that removed Section 232 duties on Mexican steel imports but allows them to be reintroduced if Mexican steel imports "exceed historic volumes of trade" and "surge meaningfully" into the market. The lawmakers said iron and steel imports increased about 73% over the agreed baseline from 2015 to 2017, which they believe requires action from the administration under the agreement.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
CBP is no longer requiring emails from importers to activate approved Section 232 exclusions, and will now directly process approved exclusions based on weekly lists provided by the Commerce Department, CBP said in a CSMS message Feb. 7. A list of approved exclusions will be posted every Friday, and the product exclusion ID must be on that list before the customs broker or filer submits the exclusion ID on entry documentation, CBP said.
President Donald Trump legally expanded the Section 232 national security tariffs to include steel and aluminum "derivative" products despite implementing the expansion beyond procedural deadlines laid out in the statute, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in a Feb. 7 opinion. Relying on the appellate court's opinion in Transpacific Steel v. U.S., in which the court said that the president can adjust the tariffs beyond these time limits if it relates to the original plan of action laid out in the initial Section 232 tariff action, the Federal Circuit said that the expansion of the tariffs was related to the original plan.
The U.S. will appeal a World Trade Organization dispute panel ruling that found its origin marking requirement for goods from Hong Kong violated global trade rules. Submitting its notification of appeal during the Jan. 27 meeting of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body, the U.S. said it was taking the matter to the defunct Appellate Body concurrent with separate panel rulings that said the Section 232 national security tariffs also violated WTO commitments.
A U.S. manufacturer and a labor union seek the imposition of new antidumping duties on tin mill products from Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and the U.K., as well as new countervailing duties on tin mill products from China, they said in petitions filed with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission Jan. 18. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations, which could result in the imposition of permanent AD/CVD orders and the assessment of AD and CVD on importers. Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers Union filed the petitions.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 9-15:
Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Bob Casey, D-Pa., are continuing to press Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to convince the president to hike tariffs on transformer inputs such as grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) laminations and cores. The two senators, who have a grain-oriented electrical steel producer in each of their states, published their letter on Jan. 13.
Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., one of the leading voices for free trade in the Democratic caucus, and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., a free-trade purist in the Republican caucus, issued a joint paper of recommendations on trade on Dec. 29, just before they were both leaving office.