Trade Cases
Priefert Wins Tariff Exclusion After Long, Frustrating Wait
Written by John Packard
December 6, 2018
Calling it “a good day for the little guys” after a frustrating eight-month wait, Priefert Manufacturing Co. reports the Commerce Department has finally granted the company a one-year exclusion on a 10-gauge, 80-inch hot rolled product that is not made in the United States. Based in Mount Pleasant, Texas, Priefert is a service center and manufacturer of ranching equipment and it needs that particular steel to fabricate truck beds. The Commerce ruling clears the way for Priefert to source the steel outside the U.S. without having to pay the 25 percent Section 232 tariff.
As Steel Market Update reported back on Oct. 2 (see The Tariff Exclusion Process: A Case Study in Frustration), the product exclusion filing was complicated and time consuming. Chris Shipp, Priefert General Manager, said he was in weekly contact with Commerce to try to expedite the process. “It took too long to investigate and it was too long to wait for a product that is not made in the United States. It’s frustrating when you see someone who filed a request after you did and they get an answer while you wait.”
Trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz tells SMU that the above letter was “just the first step in a long process” as the importer of record will have to work through the Customs Department to recover the nearly $500,000 in tariffs paid on this material since March 2018. Duferco, as the trader of record, is now working with U.S. customs on getting the tariffs returned.
As noted in the October article, two domestic steel mills originally filed objections to the Priefert exclusion request. One mill withdrew its objection. Priefert is now working with that supplier to see if they can make the product at one of their U.S.-based steel mills. “They would like to try to make the item. We hope to do a trial during the first quarter of 2019,” Shipp said.
Shipp credited Republican Congresswoman Jackie Walorski of Indiana and her staff for assisting Priefert through the process. It was her chief of staff who called to notify them that their exclusion had been granted.
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Trade Cases
Biden hikes tariffs on Chinese goods, including steel and aluminum
The Biden administration announced a series of actions on Tuesday targeting China’s "unfair" trade policies. These actions will, among other things, make imports of steel and aluminum from the Asian nation even more prohibitive.
Price: How did ‘Buy Clean’ get switched to ‘Buy Dirty’?
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) appropriated more than $4 billion to the General Services Administration (GSA) and Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) for “Buy Clean” programs. The statute makes clear that GSA and FHWA purchases under these programs are limited to those with “substantially lower” emissions. There is no ambiguity in that requirement. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has defined “substantially lower” to mean products with the lowest 20% of embodied emissions when compared to similar materials.
Domestic producers prevail in Japanese tin mill product trade case
A vote on Friday by the International Trade Commission (ITC) ensures that antidumping duties on certain steel sheet imports from Japan will continue for the mid-term.
Op-Ed: Strong trade enforcement builds prosperity and security
Tariffs on unfairly traded steel and other products help to stabilize America’s most important industries, safeguard tens of thousands of jobs, and protect national security. My union, the United Steelworkers (USW), never seeks these remedies lightly. And presidents, Republican and Democrat alike, implement them only after diligent investigations documenting the harm that foreign adversaries intentionally inflict upon our country with dumping, overproduction and other kinds of trade cheating. I don’t think Lewis Leibowitz considered these points while criticizing tariffs in his excessively pro-free-trade column, “Where is the voice of the consumer?” on May 5.
Leibowitz on trade: Where is the voice of the consumer?
The election campaign is white-hot right now, and the Biden administration is touting its protectionist message. Just this past week, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) touted this message. In a release entitled “What They are Saying,” USTR quoted many of the usual protectionist groups praising government action against Chinese steel exports and shipbuilding. Consuming industries in the United States, which employ many times the American workers as the industries seeking trade protection, were not mentioned.