After months of negotiations, the United States and European Union have announced that the national security tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imports of steel and aluminum will be lifted and replaced with a tariff rate quota (TRQ) system that will allow specified amounts of EU steel and aluminum to enter the U.S. without the additional tariffs. Once the quota is filled, the imported products will be subject to the tariffs – 25% for steel and 10% for aluminum. The change from tariffs to quotas goes into effect Jan. 1, 2022. A complete list of steel and aluminum product categories subject to the TRQ is available here.
The EU will remove its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products including motorcycles, bourbon, and orange juice. In a joint press release from U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Tai stated the agreement “delivers on President Biden’s vision to repair relationships with our European partners while also helping to ensure the long-term viability of our steel and aluminum industries.”
The 54 steel product categories, which were subject to the Section 232 tariffs, will be subject to a TRQ of 3.3 million metric tons. The volume is based on the 2015-2017 historical period of exports to the United States and will be allocated on an EU-member-state basis.
Steel products that have been granted an exclusion from the additional duties, totaling 1.1 million metric tons, will not count against the TRQ and will stay in effect through December 2023.
To qualify for the quota, steel imports must be “melted and poured” in the EU, in accordance with current U.S. rules. Importers should be prepared to provide relevant documentation to show satisfaction of this requirement.
Imports of aluminum will be subject to a TRQ volume of 18,000 metric tons for unwrought aluminum and 366,000 metric tons for semi-finished aluminum. To qualify, importers must provide a Certificate of Analysis for each aluminum product in accordance with current U.S. rules.
Importers may continue to apply for exclusions from the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum products.