What You Need to Know About the New Steel and Aluminum Tariffs

posted by Tina Weyant

Yesterday, President Trump signed a Presidential Proclamation regarding the imports of steel, and a second Proclamation regarding the imports of aluminum.  

A 25% additional duty on steel and a 10% additional duty on aluminum products will become effective on March 23, 2018 for all countries, except Mexico and Canada for now.

Steel Articles
Steel articles are defined with reference to the following U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule's  6-digit subheadings:

• 7206.10 through 7216.50 
• 7216.99 through 7301.10 
• 7302.10 
• 7302.40 through 7302.90 
• 7304.10 through 7306.90 

Aluminum Articles
Aluminum articles are defined as follows:

• HTS 7601 - unwrought aluminum 
• HTS 7604  - aluminum bars, rods, and profiles
• HTS 7605 - aluminum wire
• HTS 7606 and 7607 - flat rolled aluminum products, including plate, sheet, strip, and foil
• HTS 7608 and 7609 - aluminum tubes and pipes and tube and pipe fitting 
• HTS 7616.99.51.60 and 7616.99.51.70 -  aluminum castings and forgings 

These rules include any subsequent revisions to the HTS classifications

Possible Product Exclusions via a Petition Process:

There will be a petition-based, product exclusion process run by the Department of Commerce, based on the following standard of whether the article is: 

• produced in the United States "in a sufficient and reasonably available amount or of a satisfactory quality"  or 
• subject to specific national security considerations

Petitions need to be filed by a directly affected party located in the United States.  The US Dept. of Commerce will issue formal procedures for this process by March 18th.

Possible Country Exclusions:

Imports from Canada and Mexico are exempted from the additional duty for now.  Imports from countries with which the United States has a security relationship are encouraged to discuss with the Administration alternative ways to address the threatened impairment of the national security presented by imports from their country.

Thank you Ted Murphy, of Baker McKenzie 

for background details regarding this article

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