US, NLMK Pennsylvania Agree to Settle Suit on Section 232 Exclusions

Importer NLMK Pennsylvania and the U.S. jointly requested a stay in a suit on the Commerce Department's refusal to grant the company exclusions for Section 232 steel and aluminum duties so that the parties can "focus their efforts on resolving this matter through settlement." Filing a joint motion Aug. 9 for stay at the Court of International Trade, the parties said they have been engaging in settlement talks and an agreement has been reached "in principle" (NLMK Pennsylvania v. U.S., CIT # 21-00507).

To formalize the deal, more time is needed for NLMK "to compile import data necessary to effectuate the settlement, for Customs and Border Protection to review that import data for administrability, for the parties to draft the relevant settlement documents, and for the Department of Justice and Department of Commerce to obtain the necessary settlement authority to enter into the settlement agreement," the brief said. Should the stay be granted, the parties said they would file a joint status report on the state of the settlement every 60 days.

NLMK sought 58 exclusions for two different types of semi-finished stainless steel slabs from Russia, which Commerce rejected after finding that the domestic industry was capable of timely making the slabs in enough quantities. The trade court found the agency did not properly support the rejections (see 2301230027). The parties were arguing over the length of the remand period when settlement talks began.