The Aluminum Association applauds incorporation of Aluminum import tracking System in the US commerce department budget

The US commerce department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) confirms its recently published congressional budget estimate for the fiscal year 2021 plan is to “to develop a new system to track imports of aluminium products and provide an early warning system for import surges.”

ITA details the tracking system as an “Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis program”. This will support the government officials and the industry to better identify trends in trade flows and address aluminium miss-classification, trans-shipment, and evasion of duties.

The Aluminum Association has long supported the creation of a formal aluminium import monitoring system. In October 2019, the Congressional Aluminum Caucus sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross endorsing the program.

The Commerce Department’s budget request also includes an additional $3 million to support ITA’s role in analyzing Section 232 exclusion requests as well as $2 million to enforce antidumping and countervailing duty orders, both priorities of the Aluminum Association. The release of the president’s budget begins a process with congressional appropriators to develop priorities for federal spending in FY 2021. 

Lauren Wilk, VP for policy and international trade at the Aluminum Association, said: “We are grateful that the administration is moving to create an aluminium import monitoring system and prioritizing additional trade enforcement.”

“We appreciate the bipartisan support we’ve seen for these critically important items, which will help level the playing field for aluminium workers across the country. While significant work remains to secure final funding and establish a robust program, this is a very positive step.”

In December’19, the Aluminum Association called for all parties in the recently approved U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to commit to strong trade enforcement as part of a shared commitment to a healthy and vibrant North American aluminium industry. Last year, Canada announced an expansion of its import monitoring system to include aluminium and aluminium products. Mexico made a similar commitment to “prevent the importation of aluminium that is unfairly subsidized and/or sold at dumped prices” and “establish an agreed-upon process for monitoring aluminium trade between them” but has not yet acted to formally monitor aluminium imports into Mexico.

Lauren Wilk added: “Both the U.S. and Canada have now shown a commitment to combat unfairly traded aluminium and we look forward to working with our partners in Mexico to do the same. Unfortunately, we are seeing alarming import spikes into Mexico from non-market economy countries.”