Commerce Again Seeks Re-Do in Section 232 Exclusion Denials, Offers Leveled Review Schedule

The Commerce Department requested a voluntary remand on July 22 to reconsider exclusion requests made for Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. In what is becoming a trend of the agency seeking remands at the Court of International Trade in cases over tariff exclusion requests (see 2107220057), Commerce wants to establish a new and independent review of the record to weigh all the evidence in the case. In light of the JSW Steel, Inc. v. United States CIT decision, which found that Commerce's exclusion request denials were "devoid of explanation and frustrate judicial review," the agency needs to take another look at its denials, it said (Evraz Inc. NA v. United States, CIT #20-03869).

In the case of Evraz Inc. and Evraz Inc. Canada, Commerce proposed three tranches in which to reconsider all of the requested denials. Since Evraz submitted 88 exclusion requests from the Section 232 tariffs, Commerce wants to break them up into a staggered remand schedule compatible with its resources. Commerce has brought up the logistical challenges with processing the exclusion requests as grounds for the "staggering of schedules for remand proceedings in these cases." The agency is facing more than 19,000 pending exclusion requests, per its brief.