Trade Cases

Brazilian Ambassador Seeks Removal of Section 232

October 31, 2022

The Brazilian ambassador to the US said it’s time for the removal of Section 232 tariffs and quotas in an editorial sent to the Wall Street Journal.

brazil flag The 232 tariffs and quotas have been in effect for more than four years – since 2018, when then-President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum in the name of national security. Some countries, Brazil is one example, agreed to a hard quota in exchange for an exemption to the 25% tariff on steel.

Nestor Forster Jr., Brazilian ambassador to the US, wrote in an Oct. 30 WSJ op-ed that removal of Section 232 “would be an example of a win-win measure, with positive effects on production costs, gross domestic product and employment levels in the US and Brazil.”

Forster points out that Brazil is the second largest importer of met coal produced in the US and that nearly 85% of US imports of Brazilian steel are semifinished products going into the construction and auto industries. Removal of Section 232 is “long overdue,” he said.

Forster’s comments come in response to an op-ed published by WSJ’s Editorial Board just days before titled “Call Them the Biden-Trump Tariffs Now.”

Brazil’s hard quota on steel products for the 2022 year is approximately 4,622,164 tons with quarterly limits, according to US Customs and Border Control’s quota bulletins.

Year-to-date through Oct. 25, Brazil has sent just under 2.3 million short tons of steel products to the US, based on US government data. That figure includes September’s preliminary count and October’s import license count through Oct. 25.

Not long after imposition of the 232 tariffs, an agreement was reached to exempt Canada, Mexico, and Australia from the tariffs. Brazil, Argentina, and South Korea agreed to hard quotas, and tariff rate quota (TRQ) agreements have also now been reached with the European Union, Japan, and the UK to replace the traditional 232 tariffs.

By Laura Miller, Laura@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held a variety of positions within the steel industry since 2007, including reporting and editing for Steel Business Briefing/Platts, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, and Kallanish Commodities, as well as marketing for what was then known as ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (now AM/NS Calvert). After a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel in 2021 and has covered the flat rolled, tubular, and trade areas of the industry. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.