China Benefitting From Section 232 Exclusion Process?

According to a new report released by George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, China has gained exemptions from the United States’ Section 232 penalties at a rate that is about five times greater than the exclusion rate for trading partners in Canada. Practically that means that, in total, nearly 86 percent of China’s 2017 aluminum import volume has been excluded from the Section 232 penalties.

The report also found:

• Tariff exclusion requests are taking longer than expected to process.Commerce expected a 90-day waiting period, but 76 percent of steel requests have taken longer than that.
• Over half of tariff exclusion requests are still pending a decision.The shutdown began December 22 and lasted over a month. As a result, the existing backlog and wait times are expected to increase.
• Participants cannot track their filings through the process or follow the progress of their requests.It takes an average of 21 days for a filed request to appear publicly on regulations.gov, and while the requests are filed under a single docket, every corresponding objection, rebuttal, sur-rebuttal, and decision memo has a different identification number.

Click here to read the full report.