Following a request from US lawmakers, the Government Accountability Office is undertaking a review of the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff exclusion process in early 2019, US Senator Pat Toomey's office said Wednesday.
Toomey (Republican-Pennsylvania), along with Senators Tom Carper (Democrat-Delaware) and Doug Jones (Democrat-Alabama) sent a letter to the GAO requesting a review in November and stating that the exclusion process for the steel and aluminum tariffs has created a large backlog of petitions and has placed "significant" burdens on US businesses. After the US introduced tariffs of 25% on steel imports and 10% on aluminum imports March 23, the Department of Commerce established a process for US companies to file product-specific exclusion requests for cases in which there is no domestic availability or overriding national security concerns about the specific product.
In a letter sent to Toomey's office, the GAO said it expects to have staff with the required skills initiate the investigation in about three months. The GAO said it will also be in contact with the Inspector General's office to ensure it does not duplicate efforts. Commerce's Office of Inspector General initiated an audit of the Section 232 exclusion process at the start of November.
"These taxes on steel and aluminum imports - which were established under the false pretense of 'national security' - are hurting American workers and consumers," Toomey said in a statement. "Making matters worse is Commerce's broken exclusion process, which should be providing relief in applicable cases. I hope GAO's review produces recommendations for fixing this flawed process so more Americans are spared from these onerous taxes."
The Section 232 product exclusion process has received repeated criticism from industry groups and lawmakers since it was established in April. Earlier this week, US Senators Orrin Hatch (Republican-Utah) and Ron Wyden (Democrat-Oregon) sent a letter to Commerce calling on the department to improve the product exclusion process, particularly the rate at which requests are processed.
As of December 10, 55,161 steel and 7,463 aluminum exclusion requests have been filed, according to Commerce. Overall, 18,890 steel exclusion decisions have been posted (13,730 approved), while 1,136 aluminum decisions have been posted (917 approved). In addition, 47,560 steel objections have been posted as well as 2,317 for aluminum.
Commerce did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Commerce previously said it was looking to introduce a new online portal for submitting exclusion requests that would streamline the process and make it easier for companies to file and follow their requests. In a November 26 Federal Register notice, Commerce said it planned to transition to the new portal sometime in late 2018 to 2019, however, no further updates have been provided.
