The US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has sent letters to AK Steel CEO Roger Newport, US Steel Corporation CEO David Burritt and Nucor CEO John Ferriola to “respectfully request information about [each] company’s role in the [Section 232] tariff exclusion process.”
According to the letters, which were obtained exclusively by SteelOrbis, “the Commerce Department established a process for businesses to apply for exclusions of specific steel and aluminum import products. Upon receiving an exclusion request, the Department determines whether the product is produced domestically in sufficient availability and quality. The Department also established a process through which other businesses or organizations could object to exclusion requests.”
The letters further state that the department has since received more than 20,000 exclusion requests; by the end of July, the DOC had reportedly denied 639 requests, “with half of those denials reportedly receiving an objection from US Steel, Nucor or AK Steel Holding Corporation.”
According to the letters, Department officials allegedly boasted that ‘they have not granted a single steel exclusion request that drew an objection from domestic steel producers.’”
Business leaders, the letters add, have described the exclusion process as “miserable” and have expressed concerns about its arbitrary and uncertain nature. They’ve also described the process as being time-consuming and burdensome.
In light of these concerns surrounding the exclusion process, the Senate Committee has requested AK Steel, US Steel Corporation and Nucor provide the following:
* The dates on which their companies filed the objection(s)
* Whether the Department requested any information or clarification about the objection(s), along with the dates of those requests and responses
* Whether the Department approved or denied the exclusions, along with the dates of the Department’s final decision(s)
* How each company determines whether to submit an objection to an exclusion request
* All documents and communications between or among employees or agents of each company, and employees or contractors for the Commerce Department for the period Sept. 1, 2017 to the present referring to the steel and aluminum tariffs, the tariff exclusion process or objections to tariff exclusions.
* All documents and communications between or among employees or agents of each company and the employees of the Executive Office of the President for the period Sept. 1 2017 to the present referring or relating to the steel and aluminum tariffs, the tariff exclusion process or objections to tariff exclusions.
The initial deadline to respond was listed as Sept. 10, but sources close to SteelOrbis have confirmed that the deadline has been delayed to Sept. 24.
Elected officials allege lack of oversight
On August 29, SteelOrbis reported that US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) sent a request to the US Department of Commerce’s inspector general to investigate the DOC’s process of granting and rejecting exemptions to the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Warren’s letter stated: “The Commerce Department process for making decisions that affect thousands of American companies subject to President Trump’s tariffs is failing to protect national security; it is arbitrary and opaque, replete with mistakes, and subject to political favoritism.”
The letter also expressed concern that the US steel industry, which has close ties to both Trump and Wilbur Ross, is exerting too much influence in the DOC’s waiver decision process. Warren cited a New York Times article that showed that by the end of August, Nucor and US Steel filed objections to 1,600 waiver requests, and all of those requests were denied.
Industry analysts feel the exemption process is flawed
Ascent Consultants Managing Director Matt Beckmann agrees the exemption process is flawed.
"[Its] been flawed since its inception. Applicants complained that the process was overly burdensome, lacked transparency and gave far too much deference and weight to domestic producer objections," Beckmann said. "This is a good start, but further refinement is necessary.
"The question remains how the DOC will handle these requests in a timely manner. Rebuttals add an important element to the analysis, but they also extend the review time for each application and the backlog is still in the thousands. As they say in the legal community, justice delayed is justice denied."