The purpose of this message is to provide guidance on the Department of Commerce’s December 14, 2020 interim final rule issuing new Section 232 exclusions.
BACKGROUND
On December 14, 2020, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce published Federal Register (FR) Notice 85 FR 81060, revising aspects of Commerce’s process for requesting product exclusions from Section 232 measures on steel and aluminum imports, and issuing 123 new Section 232 exclusions. These new exclusions are called General Approved Exclusions (GAEs), and exclude 123 entire Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) classifications from the Section 232 measures. The exclusions are effective for article entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after December 29, 2020.
The functionality for the acceptance of the GAEs will be available in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) as of 7 am eastern standard time, December 29, 2020.
GUIDANCE
BIS has granted 108 GAEs for steel products and 15 GAEs for aluminum products. GAEs may be used by any importer and have no quantitative limit. Exclusions are effective starting December 29, 2020, and no retroactive relief will be granted. Please review the list of excluded HTS classifications in the attached chart.
When an importer reports an excluded 10 digit HTS classification on an entry summary line, ACE will not require the Section 232 duties for that line. We note that the FR Notice states that, in order to use a GAE for an exclusion for Section 232 duties, the importer must reference the GAE identifier in the ACE system that corresponds to the steel or aluminum articles being imported. In ACE, the GAE identifiers are the excluded 10 digit HTS classifications. Importers should not report any other Section 232 exclusion number or Chapter 99 Section 232 HTS classification on an entry summary line when importing goods under a GAE.
This guidance only applies to Section 232 duty exclusions under a GAE. Separate guidance will be issued for entry summary reporting requirements for Section 232 quota exclusions under a GAE.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For questions regarding Section 232 trade remedies, please refer to CSMS message #42203908 (Information on Trade Remedy Questions and Resources) https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCBP/bulletins/283fb04. For questions regarding Section 232 and quota, please contact the HQ Quota mailbox at HQQuota@cbp.dhs.gov.
Related messages include: 42566154, 42355735, 41981999, 41538803, 39633923, 18-000424, 18-000378, 18-000372, 18-000352, 18-000258, 18-000249, 18-000240
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