News

U.S. Chamber Senior Vice President and Head of International John Murphy recently outlined how the administration’s Section 232 “inclusions process” stifles harms U.S. manufacturers and stifles economic growth. The December 18 post was the fourth in a series on “How Tariffs Risk Hollowing Out American Manufacturing.”

Fire Extinguishers and Golf Carts: In a process ratcheting tariffs up but never down, the Commerce Department unveiled a new “inclusions” exercise extending the reach of the 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum to hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of so-called derivative products that contain these metals. Murphy points to the non-exhaustive list of “derivative” items now incorporated into the scope of the “national security”-based tariffs:

Call for Change: In a September letter signed by more than 40 U.S. business organizations, the Chamber and other groups called for changes to the process. Specifically, the business community is advocating for:

• A revised approach that hews to the statutory intent of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, namely, that tariffs may be imposed only when imports “threaten to impair the national security” — which imports of many of the tariffed products named above do not;
• A more transparent process that allows industry a meaningful opportunity to rebut requests for tariff hikes sought by others and also to secure the removal of a product from the derivatives list after it has been added; and
• Clear guidance on aspects of the “inclusions” process such as the valuation criteria to be used (as the letter notes, Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security has indicated it would “publicly post a memo that ‘summarizes the rationale’ for making determinations. The memos posted to date offer no such analyses.”).

The Chamber also joined efforts led by the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) to provide written comments and recommendations on the process. The December 22 comments—signed by 28 associations—were in response to the information collection request proposed by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).

For further information, please contact Senior Vice President and Head of International John Murphy (jmurphy@uschamber.com) and Executive Director for International Policy Isabelle Icso (iicso@uschamber.com).