Insights

President Trump signs Presidential Proclamations Imposing Tariffs on Steel and Aluminium Imports

Further to our update last week on President Trump’s informal announcement of impending tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, yesterday the US indeed imposed such tariffs by Presidential Proclamation, which we link here for steel and aluminium respectively.

With effect from 12:01AM Eastern Time on 23 March 2018, the United States will impose 25% tariffs on “steel articles” classified under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) 6‑digit subheadings 7206.10 through 7216.50, 7216.99 through 7301.10, 7302.10, 7302.40 through 7302.90, and 7304.10 through 7306.90.  These tariffs will apply to all such products except those of Canadian and Mexican origin.  In addition, a 10% tariff will be applied on “aluminium articles” classified under the HTS headings for unwrought aluminium (7601), aluminium bars, rods, and profiles (7604), aluminium wire (7605), aluminium plate, sheet, strip, and foil (i.e., flat rolled products) (7606 and 7607), aluminium tubes and pipes and tube and pipe fitting (7608 and 7609), and aluminium castings and forgings (subheadings 7616.99.51.60 and 7616.99.51.70).

Within 10 days of the issuance of the Presidential Proclamations, the Secretary of Commerce will issue procedures for requesting exclusions to this tariff order.  Such exclusions will be granted where an article covered by the additional tariffs is determined (1) not to be produced in the United States in a sufficient and reasonably available amount or (2) of a satisfactory quality.  Under these circumstances relief may be granted upon specific national security considerations.  Requests for relief must be made by a directly affected party located in the United States.  If the Secretary determines that a particular aluminium article should be excluded, the Secretary shall, upon publishing a notice of such determination in the Federal Register, notify Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the Department of Homeland Security concerning such article so that it will be excluded from the duties described in clause 2 of this proclamation.  The Secretary shall consult with CBP to determine whether the HTSUS provisions created by the Annex to this proclamation should be modified in order to ensure the proper administration of such exclusion, and, if so, shall make such modification to the HTSUS through a notice in the Federal Register.

Imports of these products will be continuously monitored and, where necessary and deemed appropriate, these tariffs may be either increased or eliminated as a result.

Noted that Section 232 is not a commonly used tariff measure and the consequences in relation to potential retaliation against US exports and other WTO dispute proceedings is not yet known.  In addition, the exclusion possibility provided for under the Presidential proclamation is also not yet defined.  I will continue to monitor this situation and keep you up-to-date.

For the detail opinion, please see my insight piece: https://marshall-legal.com/the-law-of-unintended-consequences-the-uss-lawless-approach-on-steel-and-aluminium-tariffs-are-likely-to-backfire/