Trade Remedies & Import Compliance
Section 232 Tariffs
Also known as: 232 Tariffs, National Security Tariffs
Section 232 refers to a United States statute permitting additional tariffs or quotas on imports that are found to threaten national security, applied most visibly to steel and aluminum and later extended to a range of derivative products. Administered through designated Chapter 99 provisions and defined by specific tariff-number scope, Section 232 duties stack on top of ordinary rates and can interact in complex ways with quotas, exclusions, and other trade-remedy measures. Because the covered scope and country coverage shift with policy, importers of metals and metal-intensive goods must track Section 232 status closely to calculate duty correctly.
Steel and aluminum first, and by now a great deal more — automobiles and parts, copper, timber and derivative wood products each carry their own proclamation and their own annex. The trap is the word derivative: a finished product containing covered material can be in scope while feeling nothing like a steel mill's output. Check the current annex against your actual article, by tariff number.
Where it matters for compliance
- Derivative lists are amended periodically. An article outside scope last year may be inside it now.
- Section 232 articles are carved out of some other trade actions — the interaction matters and is not intuitive.
Related terms
Reviewed by a licensed customs broker. Definitions are general information, not legal or customs advice for a particular shipment. Duty rates, tariff programs and agency requirements change frequently.