The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced via Federal Register Notice the opening of the window to submit requests to include additional derivative products under the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. The window opened on September 15, 2025 and is set to close on September 29, 2025, at 11:59 PM (EST). Requests are required to include information regarding the derivative product and tariff classification for any inclusion request and are to be submitted to the Defense Industrial Base Programs inbox at DIBPrograms@bis.doc.gov.
After the elapse of the inclusion request window, BIS will post the comments in a docket on regulations.gov for opposition or support comments on the requested inclusion. The period for opposition or support comments is set to last two weeks. Following the two-week window for opposition or support comments, BIS will review and consider the submission over a sixty-day period. If the inclusion requests are granted, BIS will announce the approved inclusion via Federal Register Notice and will post a decision memo on the regulations.gov docket.
The September inclusion request window is the second inclusion request period held since the process was first announced on March 5, 2025. The first inclusion request window began in May and ended in August, resulting in BIS including over four-hundred additional products to the steel and aluminum derivative tariffs, announced via Federal Register Notice. Only sixty HTS codes requested by interested parties were denied inclusion. Denials were typically limited only to products already subject to section 232 tariffs under a separate designation (e.g., BIS declined to add products already listed under the auto parts 232 tariffs to the steel 232 tariff list.
Parties wishing to challenge the legal sufficiency of the inclusion process, or the basis for inclusion of a downstream manufactured product in the "steel derivatives" list must take steps to present arguments in opposition during the comment window period, or risk losing the opportunity to mount a court challenge to the tariffs for failing to first exhaust administrative remedies.
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