Aluminum Extruders Council says unfair import rules have lead to massive rise in imported aluminum
The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) released a statement commending Senator Tom Cotton for leading an effort to ask the Department of Commerce to address the “serious threats” to the U.S. aluminum extrusion industry and its workers from untariffed aluminum imports.
AEC officials say unfair rules have resulted in foreign imports rising 82 percent, with a market penetration exceeding 25 percent, the highest level in more than a decade.
AEC says current process places unfair burden on domestic extruders
The DOC's current exclusion process allows foreign-made extruded aluminum products to be imported tariff-free under the current rules if a product cannot immediately "be produced in the United States in a sufficient and reasonably available amount or of a satisfactory quality." If a U.S. aluminum extruder objects to an exclusion, they must prove their company can either produce the extruded product in eight weeks or produce the extruded product faster than any specified foreign competitor. AEC contends that "while the spirit of the requirements is reasonable, they have placed an unfair burden on American extruders," the letter states.
What the AEC is asking for
The nature of custom manufacturing is that for the individual custom shape to be produced it requires product dimensions and specifications to acquire the necessary tooling, which can take weeks. The DOC nonetheless grants importers exemptions as if they were dealing with shelf-ready mass producers.
U.S. aluminum extruders, in turn, have difficulty overturning these exclusions, says the AEC. Indeed, because of the difficulty U.S. aluminum extruders have had in meeting the DOC's Aluminum 232 exclusion objection criteria, the DOC adopted a "General Approved Exclusion" or "GAE" process whereby importers of foreign-made aluminum extrusions do not even have to apply for an exclusion to the Aluminum 232 tariffs – they are granted automatically, say AEC officials. As such, AEC urges the DOC to revoke the GAE related to aluminum extrusions and revise the criteria upon which objections can be filed.
The recent history of aluminum tariffs
In 2018, the DOC reported that rising aluminum imports "are ‘weakening our internal economy' and threaten to impair the national security as defined in Section 232" and imposed a 10 percent tariff in response.
As a result, aluminum imports fell by 31 percent and domestic production rose by nearly a billion dollars between 2018-2021. As such, the DOC noted in public remarks that "the data show that those tariffs have been effective." Although these tariffs have curbed unfair foreign competition for primary aluminum producers, they have not sufficiently protected domestic aluminum extruders, says the AEC statement. This is because the DOC has adopted overly broad tariff exclusion rules, say AEC officials.
