CBP Updates Requirement for Unknown Aluminum Country of Smelt/Cast
On Tuesday we advised, in CBP’s Section 232 FAQs, that CBP required the declaration of “RU” / Russia as the country of smelt and the country of cast if the importer was unable to determine the country of smelt or cast for a derivative product.
CBP has since modified that instruction. Importers no longer must report Russia and pay 200% rate of Section 232 duty and instead may report another country and pay 25% rate of Section 232 duty.
How to report the country of smelt and cast for derivatives when the information is unknown?
- For derivative aluminum, the filer, as an interim solution, may report any country other than the United States if the filer does not know the country of smelt or cast. Importers may submit a post-summary correction to update the country of smelt or cast when they
obtain information on the actual countr(ies) of smelt or cast. For a long-term solution, CBP is looking into other options for reporting an unknown country of smelt or cast. CBP will provide guidance through CSMS when more information is available. - Importers must exercise reasonable care and work with their vendors to go back through their supply chain to identify the country of smelt and country of cast, but this change provides relief for importers.
- When the information is unknown, importers may choose to report the country of origin of the article, but may NOT report the U.S.
We will continue to monitor developments in this fast-moving environment and provide updates as they become available. Please reach out to your Schenker contact with questions.