Apparel 
Requirements
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Exclusion
Applications to 201 Steel Safeguards |
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April
1 , 2002 Commerce Department Deadline to Review Requests for Exclusions, July 3rd Because the ultimate intent of the safeguards is to protect U.S. economic interests, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is empowered to review and approve requests from U.S. importers who request exclusions to the safeguard duties. Pursuant to the exclusion request procedures, the Commerce Department has already received approximately 1,000 requests for exemptions from the tariffs. Most of such requests have originated from among small U.S. manufacturers who have claimed that they face extreme difficulty in obtaining specialized steel inputs for use in their products. So far, Commerce has granted about 150 exemptions. The USTR and Commerce are authorized to review the requests and have until the July 3 deadline to issue decisions on all requests received. It is recommended that importers submit the applications as soon as possible to ensure adequate time for review and approval of the application by the agencies. Because of this deadline it is imperative that any importers wishing to request an exclusion immediately contact us for submission of such a request. Background President Bush's March 5th Proclamation imposed the section 201 duties and/or tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for up to three years, and called on Customs to implement a steel product licensing system for the close monitoring of steel imports. This is a second update to our previous newsletters on the 201 safeguards; these previous newsletters may be found on our website below:
U.S. Implementation Updates Since our March 22nd update, there have been several important developments by agencies implementing the 201 Safeguard duties. International Trade Commission Update to Tariff The International Trade Commission (ITC) has posted to its Web site (www.usitc.gov/taffairs.htm) an updated, March 20, 2002, version of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTS) to reflect the imposition of increased duties and/or tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on imports of certain steel products entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on/after March 20, 2002, by Presidential Proclamation 7529; and Customs Administrative Message Updates On March 20, 2002, Customs issued ABI administrative message 02-0390 providing instructions regarding the establishment and opening of the 2002-2003 tariff-rate quota (TRQ) on certain carbon and alloy steel slabs. Customs has also stated that, due to the requirements of the section 201 duties, importers and filers are not permitted to file entries of subject steel products using the remote location filing (RLF) program. Further, mill certificates must be presented with every entry summary for subject steel products as evidence of the proper country of origin. US Trade Representative's Update to Chapter 99 provisions The Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) issued a notice that made a number of technical corrections to the HTS Chapter 99 provisions that were added by Proclamation 7529. Foreign Developments As of March 25th, Canada has, as well, begun a "safeguard investigation" in order to protect its marketplace from a surge of steel imports because of the U.S. tariff wall. The Canadian International Trade Tribunal has 105 days to determine whether Canadian steel producers are being injured and then another 45 days to recommend a remedy. The European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the European Union (EU), has adopted a regulation that imposes its own TRQs against EU imports of 15 types of steel products in an effort to prevent certain steel products once intended for the U.S. from being diverted to the EU. The TRQs entered into force on March 29, 2002 and are expected to remain in effect until September 28, 2002. For additional details, please see the following article at the EU's Europa website. If you have any questions on any of the issues raised in this newsletter, please contact George R. Tuttle, III at (415) 288-0428 or via email at geo@tuttlelaw.com. George R. Tuttle, III is an attorney with the Law Offices of George R. Tuttle in San Francisco. The information in this article is general in nature and is not intended to constitute legal advice or to create an attorney-client relationship with respect to any event or occurrence, and may not be considered as such.
Copyright © 2002 by Tuttle Law Offices. All rights reserved. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by our offices or by others, we do not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information and are not responsible for any errors, omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of such information.
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