On February 10, 2025, the White House released an executive order (“EO” or “Order”) titled “Adjusting Imports of Steel into the United States”  that reinstates a 25% tariff on imports of steel and steel derivative products into the United States.  The administration has also previewed a parallel executive order on aluminum and aluminum derivative product imports. 

The Order lays out sweeping changes to the existing Section 232 tariffs on steel products, including but not limited to ending exclusions for U.S. importers, raising tariffs on subject steel products to 25% across the board from all countries, and expanding the definition of a steel derivative products.  The new tariffs are effective March 12, 2025.

Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum were initially implemented during President Trump’s first administration in 2018, following an investigation by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce into the adverse impacts of foreign steel on U.S. national security.  The Secretary’s findings provided the basis for increases in the ad valorem duty rates applied to all foreign steel and aluminum imports—to 25% for steel and 10% for aluminum—with certain country-level general exclusions resulting from “alternative agreements” with countries such as Canada and a temporary exclusion for Ukraine.

This latest executive order follows a slew of other trade actions enacted by President Trump at the beginning of his second term with the aim of closing “existing loopholes and exemptions” to safeguard industries critical to U.S. national security and shield these industries from unfair trade practices and global excess capacity. The Order eliminates all alternative arrangements, quotas, and tariff-rate quotas (“TRQs”), expands the scope of tariffs to cover downstream products, terminates all general approved exclusions, and applies strict “melted and poured” standards.

The scope of the Order remains unclear.  Under the prior section 232 tariffs, the lists of steel and aluminum derivatives that were subject to these tariffs were relatively limited in nature, as set out in the annexes of Proclamation 9705 and 9980.  However, the new Order states that additional derivative products will become subject to these tariffs, which are listed in the Annex to the Order.  As of today, this Annex has not yet been published. 

With respect to individual exclusions enjoyed by companies since the inception of the section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, companies will no longer be able to request exclusions on certain products going forward as the exclusion processed is now closed. All pending requests for exclusion should be considered terminated. However, exclusions already granted should be considered active and will remain in effect either until the quantity of the exclusion is fulfilled or the exclusion expires, whichever occurs first. Pursuant to the Order, general HTS-level exclusions for certain product lines will end on March 12, 2025.

Crowell will continue to monitor information pertaining to the Section 232 tariffs as it is released. Please see the White House Fact Sheet on the restoration of Section 232 tariffs here.