On Tuesday March 22^nd, the United Sates and the United Kingdom announced in a Joint Statement on Trade In Steel and Aluminum that the US would remove the section 232 tariffs and the UK would suspend related tariffs on US products.

Following the joint statement an Announcement of Actions on UK Imports Under Section 232 was released by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) office which outlined the specifics.

Steel Products:

The United States will replace the existing 25 percent tariff on the UK’s steel products under Section 2321 with a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) with a date of effectiveness of June 1, 2022. Under the TRQ arrangement historically-based volumes of UK steel products will enter the U.S. market without the application of Section 232 tariffs as follows:

TRQ Amount: The aggregate annual import volume under the TRQ is set at 0.5 million metric tons (MMT) under 54 product categories and allocated in line with the 2018-2019 historical period. A breakdown of the 54 product categories is enclosed in Annex 1.
Derivative Products: Imports of derivative articles of steel, as referenced in Proclamation 9980, from the UK will not be subject to Section 232 duties.
Eligible products:

- Subject to the exception provided for in paragraph 3.b, to be eligible for duty-free treatment under the quota, steel imports must be “melted and poured” in the UK and have a UK country of origin, according to current U.S. requirements and rules implementing this arrangement. An importer shall provide relevant documentation substantiating compliance with U.S. requirements. Failure to comply could result in remedies and/or penalties as provided for under U.S. law.
- Steel imports which are melted and poured in the UK but further processed in the EU, conferring an EU country of origin, and subsequently imported into the United States may be eligible for duty-free treatment under the quota and count against the UK TRQ volume, not to exceed 37.8 thousand metric tons (TMT) annually under 54 quota product categories and allocated in line with the 2021 historical period. A breakdown of the said 54 product categories will be published before June 1, 2022. The United States will develop by June 1, 2022, a mechanism to allow entry of imports under this paragraph with an EU country of origin and which are melted and poured in the UK. The UK will work with industry to develop a mechanism by June 1, 2022, to monitor the utilization and compliance in relation to access to the TRQ under this paragraph. The UK will provide quarterly updates, including notification on reaching the quota volume limit to the in-quota rates.

Exclusions: The United States will maintain its exclusions process, as implemented under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, available for steel products imported from the UK.
Tariff Rate: Section 232 steel products from the UK that are within-quota will enter free of any Section 232 duty while all Section 232 products entering above-quota will continue to be subject to a Section 232 duty of 25 percent, provided that they are not subject to an exclusion as per paragraph 4 above.
Administration: The TRQ will be calculated for each year of the measure and administered on a quarterly basis. Any unused TRQ volume from the first quarter of the year, up to 4 percent of the allocated quota for that quarter, will roll over to the third quarter; any unused TRQ volume from the second quarter of the year, subject to the same limit, will roll over into the fourth quarter; and any unused TRQ volume from the third quarter, subject to the same limit, will roll over into the first quarter of the following year. The TRQ will be allocated on a first come, first served basis for each product category. The United States will provide on a public website updated information on the utilization of the quarterly quota for each product category, including information on the transferred unused TRQ volumes from one quarter to another.
Adjustment: The United States will conduct annual reviews of the TRQ to calculate the level of U.S. steel demand (apparent consumption) in the previous year when such data becomes available from the World Steel Association. For each 6 percent that this calculated level is above or below U.S. steel demand in 2021, the TRQ volume would increase or decrease, respectively, by 3 percent relative to the level outlined in paragraph 1 in the subsequent twelve-month period. Should the calculated level of U.S. steel demand not be at least 6 percent above or below the U.S. fiscal year 2021 level, then the TRQ volume in the subsequent year would be at the level outlined in paragraph 1 above.
Review: Starting no later than September 1, 2022, the United States will evaluate utilization and administration of the TRQ every three months and, at the request of the UK, enter consultations to address any substantial under-use of the TRQ.

Aluminum Products:

The United States will replace the existing 10 percent tariff on UK aluminum products under Section 2324 with a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) with a date of effectiveness of June 1, 2022. Under the TRQ arrangement, historically based volumes of UK aluminum products will enter the U.S. market without the application of Section 232 tariffs as follows:

TRQ Amount: The aggregate annual import volume under the TRQ is set at 0.9 thousand metric tons (TMT) for unwrought aluminum under 2 product categories and 11.4 TMT for semi-finished (wrought) aluminum, other than foil (7607), under 12 product categories. The import volumes for these categories will be allocated in line with the 2018-19 historical period. For foil (7607) the annual import volume under the TRQ is set at 9.3 TMT under 2 product categories. The import volumes for foil (7607) will be allocated in line with the 2021 reference period. A breakdown of the said product categories is enclosed in Annex 2.
Derivative Products: Imports of derivative articles of aluminum, as referenced in Proclamation 9980,5 from the UK will not be subject to Section 232 duties.
Eligible Products: In order for semi-finished (wrought) aluminum products to be eligible for duty-free treatment under the quota they must not contain primary aluminum from the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus.
Entry Documentation: An importer shall provide a Certificate of Analysis for each aluminum product entered into the United States, as required by current6 U.S. law and rules implementing this arrangement. In addition, the importer shall provide the Certificate of Analysis for the smelted (i.e., unalloyed) primary aluminum used in the manufacturing of the product entered into the United States. Failure to provide this documentation could result in remedies and/or penalties as provided for under U.S. law.
Exclusions: The United States will maintain its exclusions process, as implemented under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, available for aluminum products imported from the UK.
Tariff Rate: Section 232 aluminum products from the UK that are within-quota will enter free of any Section 232 duty, while all Section 232 aluminum products entering above quota will continue to be subject to a Section 232 duty of 10 if they are not subject to an exclusion as per point 5 above.
Administration: The TRQ is calculated for each year of the measure and administered on a semi-annual basis. The United States will provide on a public website updated information on the utilization of the semi-annual quota for each product category.