Commerce Finalizes Expanded Coverage of Steel Import Licensing Program, Defines 'Melted and Poured'

The Commerce Department will expand steel import licensing requirements to cover more steel products and require more information to be submitted to obtain the licenses, it said in a final rule released Sept. 10. The rule also indefinitely extends the expiration date of the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) system, 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. The rule takes effect Oct. 13.

Commerce’s SIMA 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.

The rule requires 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 also included a definition of “melted and poured” that wasn't in the proposed rule. Under the definition, “the license applicant is required to identify the original location where the raw steel is (1) first produced in a steel-making furnace in a liquid state, and then (2) poured into its first solid shape,” Commerce said.

The updated regulatory language for “melted and poured” steel “also provides that the first solid state can take the form of either a semi-finished product (slab, billets or ingots) or a finished steel mill product, and further explains that the location of melt and pour is customarily identified on mill test certificates that are commonplace in steel production, generated at each stage of the production process, and maintained in the ordinary course of business,” Commerce said. That reporting requirement won't apply to raw materials used in the steel manufacturing process, it said.

While Commerce said the rule expands the program’s coverage to include all products subject to Section 232 tariffs on steel products, the steel “derivative” products that were later added to the tariffs list (see 2001250003) are not included, it said in the final rule. “To clarify, this covers the steel products subject to Section 232 tariffs as announced on March 15, 2018,” it said. Commerce is also amending the regulations to expand eligibility for use of the low-value license for certain steel entries, “from a value of $250 to a value of $5,000,” to “align with current practice,” it said.