Commerce Expands Coverage of Steel Import Licensing Program

The Commerce Department is proposing to expand steel import licensing requirements to cover more steel products and require more information to be submitted to obtain the licenses, it said. The agency’s proposed rule would also indefinitely extend the expiration date of the program, which had previously been renewed every four years and was set to expire in 2022, by removing provisions on the program’s expiration from the regulations.

Commerce’s Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis system collects statistics on steel imports, including the identity of importers, the type of steel product and country of origin. Importers are required to apply for a license for tariff subheadings covered by the program, and file them with entry summary documentation.

Commerce’s proposal would expand the program’s coverage to include all products subject to Section 232 tariffs on steel products. It would also require the submission of information on the country where the steel is melted and poured, in order to implement provisions of an agreement to suspend Section 232 tariffs on Canada and Mexico. That agreement treats steel that is melted and poured in North America differently than steel that is not.

Commerce is also amending the regulations to expand eligibility for use of the low-value license for certain steel entries, from $250 to $5,000, to “align with current practice,” it said. Commerce’s application for the low-value license, which “is an optional multiple-use license that allows a company to apply once for a steel import license and use it on multiple occasions for entries of covered steel products with a limited customs value,” already provides that it may apply to entries with a value of $5,000 or less.