In April 2017, the Secretary of Commerce initiated an investigation into the effect of imported steel on national security and in January 2018 issued his report finding that the investigated imports are a threat to national security. In March 2018, President Trump timely (within 90 days of receiving the report) issued Proclamation 9705 which imposed a 25 percent ad valorem tariff on imports of steel products from all countries. However, on August 10, 2018 (outside of the statutory time limit), the President issued Proclamation 9772, which imposed a 50 percent ad valorem tariff on steel products imported from Turkey basing on the same report. An importer of Turkish steel products, Transpacific Steel LLC, brought the suit against the U.S. Government, a Turkish steel exporter intervening as plaintiff as well, asserting the second proclamation doubling the tariff on Turkish steel products was against the statutory procedure and Constitution and lacked a nexus to national security measures. The CIT ruled that the Proclamation 9772 doubling the duty on the imports of Turkish was indeed unlawful, finding the President’s act was outside the statutory time limits required by Section 232, exceeded his authority as the Proclamation lacked a nexus to Section 232’s national security objective and was against Constitution’s Equal Protection guarantees as the Proclamation discriminated between similarly situated importers based on the origin of their imports without rational justification. This may lead to importers of Turkish steel claiming refunds for payments made during the period in which the tariffs were doubled.
