On October 31, 2021, in a statement, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the existing 25% Section 232 tariffs on steel products and 10% tariffs on aluminum products from the European Union (EU) will be replaced with tariff-rate quotas (TRQ) effective January 1, 2022.

According to the statement for steel, “The aggregate annual import volume under the TRQ is set at 3.3 MMT under 54 product categories and allocated on an EU member state basis in line with the 2015-2017 historical period.” For aluminum, “The aggregate annual import volume under the TRQ is set at 18 thousand metric tons (TMT) for unwrought aluminum under two product categories, and 366 TMT for semi-finished (wrought) aluminum under 14 product categories. The import volumes will be allocated on an EU member state basis in line with the 2018-19 historical period, with the exception of foil (7607), where 2021 annualized data will be utilized.”

Products in excess of the allocated amounts will be subject to the 25% or 10% duties under Section 232. Derivative products of steel and aluminum from the EU will not be subject to the Section 232 duties.

The exclusion process implemented under Section 232 will be maintained, and the excluded steel and aluminum products will not count against the TRQ. Exclusions “granted for and utilized in U.S. fiscal year 2021” for steel products from the EU will be extended until December 31, 2023. No applications for extensions will be required for these products.

The statement, which includes breakdowns of the product categories, can be found here:

https://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/2021-10/US-232-EU-Statement.pdf