Walorski continues efforts to provide steel, aluminum tariff relief to U.S. companies

U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) last week again hammered the U.S. Commerce Department about providing steel and aluminum tariff relief for the nation’s manufacturers and small businesses.

“I write to renew yet again my strong concerns surrounding the exclusion process for the section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs run by the Department of Commerce, which continues to be plagued by a glaring lack of transparency, fairness, efficiency, and consistency,” Rep. Walorski wrote in an Oct. 17 letter sent to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Rep. Walorski continued to press the Commerce Department about fixing such problems for U.S. businesses that have requested relief from Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs, which they may do if their product is not available domestically in sufficient quantity or quality, according to the congresswoman’s staff.

However, the Commerce Department has yet to respond to Rep. Walorski’s March 11 and April 30 letters, which also raised questions about the product exclusion process.

“In this and other correspondence, I have asked for explanations regarding decisions that, on their face, seem to run counter to the facts presented by both sides, usually to the detriment of the requester,” Rep. Walorski wrote. “I have also pointed out instances where it seems that the Department has bent or ignored its own regulations.”

Rep. Walorski pointed out “yet more issues and questions concerning the exclusion process,” noting, for instance, that due to technical issues, it has been impossible to download any data from the new online portal for the Section 232 exclusion process since it went live in June 2019.

Additionally, the Commerce Department has reached inconsistent decisions, including numerous denials nearly a year after posting, on requests using a tariff code that was in some cases cited as nonexistent, and denied more than 7,500 requests for using the wrong tariff code, forcing the requester to start the process over with a new request, according to the lawmaker’s letter.

And the department has reversed numerous approvals citing a “system error” without further explanation, she wrote.

“I expect to receive a response to this and the previous correspondence as soon as possible,” Rep. Walorski wrote.