U.S. Department of Commerce Releases Enhanced Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the adoption of a final rule modernizing the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) system. Commerce also announced plans to unveil a new online platform for SIMA on Commerce's website in October.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said: “These significant improvements to SIMA will enable Commerce and the public to identify transshipment and circumvention involving steel imports more readily.
This is one more way the Trump administration is standing up for our workers and families across the country who depend on the strong American steel industry.”
The regulatory changes adopted by today's final rule will:
- require steel import license applicants to identify the country of origin and the country where steel used in the manufacture of the imported product was melted and poured, as defined in the final rule.
- expand the scope of steel products subject to the import licensing requirement to include all products subject to Section 232 tariffs.
- extend the SIMA system indefinitely, and
- codify the existing low-value license requirement for certain steel entries up to $5,000.
Commerce received public comments on these regulatory changes, as published in a March 2020 proposed rule.
The new online platform for SIMA to be released on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, represents the system's first major overhaul since it was last updated in 2005. The updated SIMA will offer free, modern data analytic tools to the public for performing detailed, customized data analysis. These tools will aid in identifying changing trade patterns and surges in U.S. imports of steel products and potential circumvention and evasion.
Commerce will hold a series of webinars for users to become familiar with the updated SIMA system. The webinars will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
The SIMA updates are consistent with May 17, 2019, joint understandings between the United States and Canada, and the United States and Mexico. It provided that in monitoring for steel import surges, the United States may treat products made with steel that is melted and poured in North America separately from products that are not.
Commerce's Enforcement and Compliance unit administers SIMA within the International Trade Administration, responsible for enforcing U.S. trade laws.
Source: Press Release Date: September 11, 2020 News Media Contact: Office of Public Affairs, 202-482-4883
