Trade Body Applauds Progress on Imported Aluminum Tracking System

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):  The Aluminum Association has welcomed the move to prioritize additional trade enforcement by developing a new system to keep track on imported aluminium products and provide early warning signals in the event of import surges.

The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) had confirmed the plans by including it in the recently released congressional budget estimate for the coming fiscal year.

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The ITA has requested for a total funding of $5 million. Out of this, $3 million is to provide aid in the administration’s job of approving Section 232 exclusion requests and the balance $2 million is towards enforcing antidumping and countervailing duties.

According to ITA, the program will help government regulators to respond to import trends. The system will help to prevent misclassifications, transhipments and evasion of import duties. Lauren Wilk, vice president for policy and international trade at the Aluminum Association noted that the Aluminum Association has long been calling for the system.

The Aluminum Association noted that lax enforcement of import regulations has resulted in significant harm to North American aluminium producers. Both the U.S. and Canada have committed to combat unfairly traded aluminium, as part of their negotiations on the recently approved U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Mexico is yet to come up with a strict monitoring system, it said.