Customs Corner: Preliminary Report: U.S. Imports for Consumption of Steel Products - March 2022
16/09/2022Customs Corner issued on April 25th, 2022
Today, the US Census Bureau released the "Preliminary U.S. Imports for Consumption of Steel Products" report for March 2022. This report provides preliminary monthly and year-to-date statistics for all steel products as well as Alloy Steel, Stainless Steel, Carbon (non-alloy) Steel, and Monitored Steel. The report can be reviewed by clicking on the below link:
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/steel/steelp_2203.pdf
Background
On 08 March 2018, President Trump signed two Presidential Proclamations 9704 and 9705 authorizing additional rates of duty to be levied on certain steel and aluminum products imported into the U.S.
Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended (19 USC 1862), authorizes the President to adjust the imports of an article and its derivatives that are being imported into the United States in such quantities or under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security.
The Secretary of Commerce is to provide a report of their investigation with 270 days of initiation and then it is up to the President to accept or disagree with the findings and use that report to take action under Sec 232.
Since then, there have been several agreements with trading partners of the US that have set either exclusions from Section 232 or set Quotas for the import of steel and aluminum products.
Quota Bulletins with weekly updates on latest totals can be found on CBP's website and are listed below
Absolute quotas exist for importation of steel and aluminum from Argentina, Brazil and South Korea.
Steel products: https://www.cbp.gov/trade/quota/bulletins/qb-22-602-2022-second-quarter-absolute-quota-steel-mill-articles-argentina-brazil-and
Aluminum products: https://www.cbp.gov/trade/quota/bulletins/qb-22-702-2022-aluminum-absolute-quota-second-quarter-argentina
Tariff Rate Quotas exist for importation of steel and aluminum from the EU and Japan European Union (EU)
Japan: Steel: https://www.cbp.gov/trade/quota/bulletins/qb-22-622-2022-tariff-rate-quota-trq-steel-articles-japan
Modernized ACE Portal Updated 23 Apr 2022
As part of the modernization of the ACE Portal, CBP deployed their CBP Forms application. The new CBP Forms application provides users with the ability to review, respond and manage the following CBP forms:
- CBP Form 28 - Request for Information;
- CBP Form 29- Notice of Action Taken;
- CBP Form 4647 - (Notice to Mark and/or Redeliver); and,
- Documents required requests
Per CSMS 51707590 this new deployment will operate only in the Chrome and Firefox browsers as it has not yet been configured to run in Microsoft Edge or Safai. A screenshot of the newly deployed portal is below for your reference. The new application is formatted similar to other applications within the ACE portal such as the ADD/CVD and Protest Applications.
CBP has also published a Quick Reference Guide (QRG) to detail a step by step process on how a user can manager each of the three forms within the new application. The QRG also provides guidance regarding the "Courtest Copy" feature upgrade within the portal. While it is now an option for brokers to receive a courtesy copy of the forms, the "Mode of Communication" must be set to "portal" or "both" in the importers ACE Portal Account and the broker's ACE Portal account in order to do so.
The QRG can be accessed at here
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Should you have any additional questions on any of the above covered topics, or, any other trade-related questions, please feel free to reach out to the Customs Brokerage Product Team at [email protected]; or, the Trade Services team [email protected].
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