US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) sent a request Wednesday 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 imposed earlier this year. According to news reports, the request said the DOC has made “troubling” decisions, including granting an exception to the subsidiary of a sanctioned Russia company.
The DOC has received over 30,000 exemption requests after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross agreed to waive the tariffs if US companies could show that certain steel or aluminum products were not available in the US, or if they didn’t threaten US national security, the official reasoning behind implementing the tariffs. So far, the DOC has approved 2,101 requests and denied 1,458, with the other requests yet to be resolved.
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 from earlier this month that showed Nucor and US Steel filed objections to 1,600 waiver requests, and all of those requests were denied.
Warren requested that the inspector general analyze the process the DOC uses to decide whether waivers are approved or denied, and investigate whether the DOC staff is following those procedures. She also requests an investigation into potential political interference and favoritism regarding the decisions.