Firms which exported derivative aluminium and steel to the US needed to work with their partners on requesting tax exemption in case their products satisfied conditions for exclusion, according to the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam.

Steel products made at Nguyen Tin Steel Joint Stock Company in Long An Province.
- VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam 

The authority said that the Trump Administration in February imposed additional duties of 10 per cent and 25 per cent on derivative aluminium articles and derivative steel articles, respectively, under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended.

The proclamation exempted articles from countries that had previously negotiated exemption agreements with the US.

As a result, the additional 10 per cent duties applicable to derivative aluminium articles did not apply to those from Argentina, Australia, Canada and Mexico while the additional 25 per cent duties applicable to derivative steel articles did not apply to those from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the Republic of Korea.

Specially, the proclamation provided for a product exclusion process.

Details for the exclusion process could be accessed at the website of the Bureau of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce at the address www.bis.doc.gov.

The imposition of additional duties of 10 per cent on aluminium imports and 25 per cent on steel imports initially began on March 23, 2018, after the US Department of Commerce found that such items were being imported into the US in such quantities as to threaten to impact US national security.

As the domestic industry might not have achieved the target capacity utilisation because of the significant increase in imports of certain derivative aluminium and steel products since March 2018, the scope of Section 232 duties on aluminium and steel was expanded to include certain derivative products.

The Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam cites statistics of the US International Trade Commission that the additional duties affected US$785 million worth of steel imports and $480 million of aluminium imports in 2019.

Vietnam exported derivative aluminium and steel products to the US worth $1.8 million and $1.63 million in 2019, respectively, accounting for 0.38 per cent and 0.21 per cent of the US’ total import of these products.