After announcing his intentions last week, President Trump signed into effect tariff increases on raw steel and aluminum today (March 8, 2018) at the White House. Now that the policy is signed, the changes are expected to be enacted within the next 15 to 30 days.
The increases directly add a 25% ad valorem duty to steel imports and a 10% ad valorem increase to aluminum imports, but are expected to indirectly affect the larger US steel and aluminum commodity markets.
The increases were enacted through Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. It provides the authority in any case that national security is threatened due to a damaged or degrading industrial base, a criterion which was intentionally left broad.
Despite original statements claiming the measures would include all countries, the plan signed today does not immediately impose tariff increases on Canada and Mexico. President Trump indicated that this exclusion would become permanent upon a successful renegotiation of NAFTA.
Steel
The Scope of Potential Changes can be found in the Section 232 Report issued by the Department of Commerce on January 11, 2018.
The report includes 5 main categories:
- Carbon and Alloy Flat Product (Flat Products): Produced by rolling semi-finished steel through varying sets of rolls. Includes sheets, strips, and plates.
- Carbon and Alloy Long Products (Long Products): Steel products that fall outside the flat products category. Includes bars, rails, rods, and beams.
- Carbon and Alloy Pipe and Tube Products (Pipe and Tube Products): Either seamless or welded pipe and tube products. Some of these products may include stainless as well as alloy other than stainless.
- Carbon and Alloy Semi-finished Products (Semi-finished Products): The initial, intermediate solid forms of molten steel, to be re-heated and further forged, rolled, shaped, or otherwise worked into finished steel products. Includes blooms, billets, slabs, ingots, and steel for castings.
- Stainless Products: Steel products, in flat-rolled, long, pipe and tube, and semi-finished forms, containing at minimum 10.5 percent chromium and, by weight, 1.2 percent or less of carbon, offering better corrosion resistance than other steel.
We believe this will be for the 6 digit HS codes of 720610 through 721650, 721699 through 730110, 730210, 730240 through 730290, and 730410 through 730690.
Aluminum
The Scope of Potential Changes can be found in the Section 232 Report issued by the Department of Commerce on January 17, 2018.
The report includes 9 types of commodities:
- Unwrought Aluminum
- Aluminum Bars, Rods and Profiles
- Aluminum Wire
- Aluminum Plates, Sheets, and Strip, of a thickness exceeding 0.2mm
- Aluminum foil, of a thickness (excluding any backing) not exceeding 0.2mm
- Aluminum Tubes and Pipes
- Aluminum Tube and Pipe Fittings
- Other Articles of Aluminum; Castings
- Other Articles of Aluminum; Forgings
We believe this will cover the headings 7601, 7604, 7605, 7606, 7607, 7608, 7609 and the 10 digit HTS codes 7616.99.5160 and 761699.5170.
Buckland is pleased to share this update and we hope that this information will be useful and beneficial. As a customer-focused company, we provide you with a single source of unmatched Customs Brokerage (Canadian, US, Mexican), Trade Managed Solutions, Freight Forwarding, Trade Technologies and Warehousing/Distribution Services. If you have questions, please reach out to Buckland today.