US Steel Says Accidental Business Confidential Information Disclosure Merits Intervention

U.S. Steel Corp. told the Court of International Trade May 19 that the public release of the administrative record in a case involving Section 232 exclusions should entitle the company to the right to intervene in the case. “Among the reasons U. S. Steel cited in support of its right to intervene was the use and contextualization of factual information supplied by U. S. Steel to Commerce,” the company told the court. The Commerce Department's inadvertent released of this information means U.S. Steel's “fear has been realized,” the company said.

Plaintiff AM/NS Calvert pushed back, saying the business confidential information (BCI) issue is “insufficient to qualify it for intervenor status,” in its letter to the court. “It is unclear how granting U.S. Steel status as a defendant-intervenor would have altered the events,” the letter said. Further, protecting the confidentiality of its own BCI does not confer a “legally protectable” interest, the plaintiff said. The case stems from the Commerce Department's denial of Calvert's requests for exclusion from the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. Calvert claims that U.S. Steel and AK Steel's objections to its exclusion requests failed to prove that the companies could produce the requested steel slab in the quality and quantity Calvert requires.