Trade Cases
January 23, 2020
Mercatus Study: Objections Derail Tariff Exclusion Requests
Written by Sandy Williams
U.S. manufacturers have requested a total of 93,933 exclusions from steel tariffs and 13,249 exclusions from aluminum tariffs since the Trump administration imposed Section 232 in 2018. To get an exemption, an applicant must make the case that the metal they require is not available domestically in a sufficient quality or quantity. While Commerce has approved roughly half of the exemption requests to date, nearly all those that drew an objection from a domestic producer have been denied or are still pending.
Researchers at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University scoured data from the new and old government portals to compile a comprehensive analysis of the exclusion process.
