The US Court of International Trade has rejected US-based Thyssenkrupp Materials North America’s (subsidiary of German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp) challenge to the US Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum arguing that the Section 232 exclusion process, which grants exclusions on an application basis to specific requestors and not automatically to all importers of a particular product, creates a non-uniform tax across the US in violation of the uniformity clause of the US Constitution.
The Court stated that Thyssenkrupp’s complaint has failed to plead facts that show actual geographic discrimination or any indication that congress sought to benefit [one state over another] for reasons that would offend the purpose of the clause.
“Thyssenkrupp argues that because Commerce is granting exclusions on an importer-by-importer basis rather than a product-by-product basis, Commerce’s exclusion process necessarily results in dis-uniform taxes across states for the same subject. This argument fails, however, because Thyssenkrupp, like any other directly-affected party in the US, could still apply for the exclusion. Thyssenkrupp also does not allege that it was, or will be, denied an exclusion, based upon its geographic location within the US,” the court stated.