The Bureau of Industry and Security within the US Department of Commerce published an interim final rule revising the exclusion process in Section 232 tariffs levied on imports of aluminum and steel.
After receiving various public comments regarding the exclusions, Commerce published its fourth interim ruling, in order to improve the process. Three major changes were made in this order. First, Commerce will create General Approved Exclusions (GAEs) where objections have not been received in the past for specific products.
Secondly, it will now closely monitor applications for excess volumes by companies, as this lowers the effectiveness of the tariffs. A certification will now be made mandatory for certain volumes requests. Lastly, it has eased on the process of domestic objectors providing the steel or aluminum articles to Commerce within eight weeks and will now allow equal time for domestic and foreign suppliers to make provisions regarding articles corresponding to the exclusion applications/objections.
Commerce requests public evaluation and comments on the latest changes by February 12, 2021.