Congress presses Commerce Department on aluminum import exclusions

Spurred by criticism from the domestic aluminum industry and manufacturers, Congress asks the U.S. Department of Commerce to stop granting so many exclusions from the tariff on imported aluminum. Getty Images

Congress appears to be backing complaints from domestic aluminum manufacturers that the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) is allowing too many exclusions from the 10% tariff President Donald Trump put on aluminum imports from all countries except Mexico and Canada.

The House Appropriations Committee just passed a DOC appropriations bill for fiscal 2021 that includes this language: “The Committee is concerned by industry reports suggesting that the Department has granted tariff exclusions for volumes of aluminum products that in some cases have exceeded historical import volumes and U.S. market demand. The Committee encourages the Commerce Department to improve its efforts to ensure that exclusion volumes are not unnecessarily disproportionate to historic import volumes and continue its efforts to leverage and advance domestic aluminum production through robust collaboration, research, and initiatives.” Fiscal 2021 starts next Oct. 1.

The House committee also appropriated $800,000 for the new Aluminum Import Monitoring System (AIMS) the DOC is setting up. A counterpart for steel imports already exists. AIMS is partly being stood up as its creators look to provide better data on imports. This has given the DOC time to fine tune its exclusion process, which is currently in review since May 26, 2020.

The DOC’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) wants comments “on the appropriateness of the factors considered, and the efficiency and transparency of the process employed, in rendering decisions on requests for exclusions from the tariffs and quotas imposed on imports of steel and aluminum articles.” In a letter to the BIS in July, the Aluminum Association said, “… [T]he current exclusion process incentivizes the import of semifabricated aluminum products, undermining domestic producers of flat-rolled products and driving down demand for primary aluminum in the United States.”

But Ardagh Metal Packaging USA Inc. argued the availability of domestic tin plate is insufficient. Ardagh makes tin cans and has relied on domestic supplies of tin plates in the past. “For the past five years the availability and reliability of domestically produced tin plate have declined,” the company told the BIS in a statement. “And the domestic steel industry has not demonstrated a meaningful commitment to increasing the quantity and quality of its tin plate production.”

Boiler Emissions Designated for Reductions

NAICS 332, which covers fabricated metal product manufacturers, is one of the industry codes cited by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in outlining companies potentially affected by its plan to reduce allowable hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions from industrial and commercial boilers.

The rule proposes to revise 34 of 90 emission limits for particular types of new and existing boilers and process heaters in a range of industries. Of the 34, 28 boiler emission categories will be more stringent than current standards and six would be modestly less stringent with no more than a 25% increase. The National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Boilers and Process Heaters went into effect on March 21, 2011, and was amended twice subsequently, the last time in November 2015.

Environmental and industry groups submitted petitions seeking judicial review of the NESHAP and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued three rulings in 2016 and 2018 that prompted the EPA to make changes. The total selected metals (TSM) emissions limits would change for eight of the combustion sources, including for both new and existing dry biomass stokers, existing wet biomass stokers, new and existing biomass fluidized beds, and new and existing biomass suspension burners. The proposed rule applies to boilers, defined as combustion devices used to generate steam or hot water for onsite use in certain industrial plant operations.

Facilities will have up to three years after the effective date of the final rule, when and if it is published, to demonstrate compliance with the new emission limits. EPA stated that it is proposing the three-year allowance to give facilities time to install additional controls or monitoring equipment to meet the more stringent emission limits or modify the method of compliance.

The proposed rule is expected to result in nationwide emission reductions of selected HAPs, such as hydrochloric acid, hydrogen fluoride, mercury, and some metals, by an additional 37.35 tons per year as compared with the current rule. Additionally, the total annualized capital costs of the proposed amendments is $22 million in 2016 dollars, which includes costs for control devices, monitoring, and testing associated with the proposed changes to the emission limits.