Section 232 Quotas for Korean Steel Imports

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a quota bulletin that sets out the sub-quotas for imports of steel products from South Korea under Section 232.

The bulletin indicates the annual sub-quotas by steel product category and provides the “quota entry codes” (6-digit numbers that begin with “99”) to be used for entering quota merchandise from Korea.  The following are the Annual Quotas for wire industry products:

  • 56,474,925 kgs for Carbon & Alloy Wire Rod
  • 40,508,288 kgs for Carbon & Alloy Wire
  • 9,535,366 kgs for Carbon & Alloy Cold Finished Bars
  • 0 kgs for Stainless Wire Rod
  • 5,338,007 kgs for Stainless Wire
  • 223,622 kgs for Stainless Cold Finished Bars

The bulletin also indicates that no more than 30 percent of the total aggregate quantity for the year may be imported during each quarter of any year (i.e., January through March, April through June, July through September, or October through December).

Notably, the annual sub-quotas from Korea for 2018 are already filled for the following product categories (see bulletin for full listing of HTS codes):

  1. Silicon electrical steel sheets and strip
  2. Tubes or pipes for piling and other products
  3. Cold-rolled strip of stainless steel
  4. Ingot and other primary forms of stainless steel
  5. Bars and rods, hot-rolled, in irregularly wound coils, of stainless steel (Quota 0 kg)
  6. Bars, hot-rolled, not of stainless steel
  7. Angles, shapes and sections of a type known as “light-shaped bars” and other products
  8. Sheet piling (Quota 0 kg)
  9. Products of tool steel and other products.

The bulletin states that for quota categories that are already filled for 2018, no entries for consumption will be permitted.

According to the bulletin, “options after the quota limit is reached include warehouse, foreign trade zone, exportation, or destruction.”