Commerce sets June start date for aluminum import license program

The US Commerce Department published a final ruling May 21 that officially set a June 28 start date for the proposed Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis system and clarified certain licensing requirements for the program.

US importers will need to secure licenses for all covered aluminum imports and report information to the US Customs and Border Protection once the system takes effect, Commerce said in a document released through the Federal Register.

"The goal of the AIM system is to allow for the effective and timely monitoring of import surges of specific aluminum products and to aid in the prevention of transshipment of aluminum products," Commerce said.

Upon importing certain aluminum products, license applicants will need to identify the countries where the largest and the second largest volume of primary aluminum used in the manufacture of the product was smelted and the country where the product was most recently cast.

The term "country of most recent cast" replaces the previous "country of pouring" stipulation to reduce confusion and better align with aluminum industry terminology, Commerce said. The "country of most recent cast" refers to the location where the aluminum was last liquefied by heat and cast into a solid state.

In response to concerns raised in public comments, Commerce said it will allow importers to state the countries of primary aluminum origin as "unknown" until June 28, 2022 to allow US manufacturers to update their purchasing systems and better track this information.

The department further confirmed that licenses will only be required for the nine subject HTS codes listed in the final ruling, but certain entries are exempt from the requirement, including products that are directly imported into a bonded warehouse. Licenses will only be needed if the product is withdrawn for consumption from a warehouse.

Importers will not be required to state the origin of any secondary aluminum used in the final product.

Commerce said it will still seek additional feedback on potential improvements or changes to the system. Two specific topics for possible feedback that were addressed in the final ruling involve expanding the scope of covered aluminum products and mandating the submission of mill test certificates with license applications for various inputs consumed at every stage of production.