Commerce Grants Section 232 Exclusion Requests Over Line Pipe After Voluntary Remand

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security granted importer CPW America Co.'s bid for exclusions from paying Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs following a remand order from the Court of International Trade. In a Feb. 23 submission, BIS said that there was not sufficient domestic U.S. capacity of line pipe to justify rejecting CPW's exclusion requests (CPW America Co. v. United States, CIT #21-00335).

CPW's exclusion request, filed in January 2020, concerns a single product -- a type of welded line pipe used for a "reel-lay" installation method for an offshore, subsea pipeline project. A single U.S. industry producer, IPSCO Koppel Tubulars, LLC, objected to the request. In its complaint at CIT, CPW argued that, contrary to IPSCO Koppel's contention, it properly showed that no domestic pipe mills are capable of making this product to the requisite technical specification for offshore reel-lay applications, and that national security is served by these imports (see 2107200030).

CPW's exclusion request was denied in July 2020. The importer later filed for a second Section 232 exclusion request in October 2020, which wasn't met with an objection, and thus granted. CPW argued that Commerce’s approval of the second exclusion bid for the same product shows that the agency's earlier denial was improper. Commerce then asked for a voluntary remand at CIT. In its motion, the agency found that the remand differs from other Section 232 cases in that it involves only a single exclusion request and makes case-specific assertions (see 2110260032).

On these grounds, BIS, after looking at the case, said that the exclusions should be granted. "In examining this request and evaluating whether the relevant steel article is produced in the United States in a sufficient and reasonably available amount or of a satisfactory quality, the Department of Commerce has fully considered all of the evidence and information and finds that this exclusion request should be granted," the remand said.