The US Department of Commerce has revised two steps in the process of requesting exclusions from the Section 232 tariffs and quotas on steel and aluminium imports into the United States.
These changes - which went into effect on Tuesday September 11 - make room for potential rebuttals and "surrebuttals" to Section 232 product exclusion requests."The department understands the importance of having a transparent, fair and efficient exclusion and objection process," according to a Federal Register entry dated September 11 and signed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.Any comments on the new "interim final rule" for the 232 exclusion process must be received by November 13, Commerce noted.The rule changes come after the department received feedback questioning the exclusions process, which Commerce first rolled out on March 19."The [exclusions] process has also been significantly streamlined - including automatically granting requests with no objections that do not present any national security concerns and applying refunds in select cases - to better address the needs of stakeholders," a Commerce spokesperson told American Metal Market via email on September...