According to the US Department of Commerce (US DOC), it has accepted a quota exclusion request from American medical equipment maker Micro Stamping for superfine stainless-steel tubes made by South Korea’s SL Tech.
It is the first such case since the US set a yearly import quota of 2.63 million tons for South Korean steel products, or 70 percent of their average export volume over the past three years, in May this year. The product will be imported without incurring the additional tariffs per Section 232.
In late August 2018, US President Trump signed an executive order that allows case-by-case exemptions for steel imports from South Korea, Argentina and Brazil depending on the situation of the US steel industry. The US will exempt imported goods from tariffs when domestic production is not sufficient to meet demand. The announcement is expected to encourage more exemption requests by US-South Korean supply chain partners.