Transpacific Steel LLC v. United States

DOCKET NO.

21-721

OP. BELOW

Fed. Cir.

SUBJECT

Trade

Question(s) Presented

“Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended, 19 U.S.C. § 1862, (‘section 232’), authorizes the President to “adjust imports” that he determines threaten national security. The statute directs that the President ‘shall’ determine whether to take action within ninety days of receiving a report from the Secretary of Commerce. If he determines to take action, he ‘shall implement that action’ within 15 days. This case challenges actions taken by the President pursuant to section 232 to double the tariffs only on imported steel products from the Republic of Turkey more than 120 days after the two express deadlines in section 232.”

“It is undisputed that the President’s action to impose the 50 percent tariff on imports of steel from Turkey alone was taken well after both deadlines expired. Despite this, a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, by a 2-1 vote, reversed the Court of International Trade and upheld the imposition of the additional tariff, finding that the mandatory ‘shall’ language in section 232 was merely permissive. Accordingly, this petition presents the following questions:”

“Whether the President acted outside of the scope of the statutory authority Congress granted under section 232 by doubling the tariff on steel imports from Turkey after the expiration of the statutory periods for presidential action specified in section 232(c)(1)?”
“Whether section 232, as construed by the Federal Circuit majority in this case to eliminate mandatory deadlines for presidential action, is inconsistent with this Court’s ruling in Federal Energy Administration v. Algonquin SNG, Inc., 426 U.S. 548 (1976), and is therefore an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the President in violation of Article I, section 8 of the Constitution and principle of separation of powers because it cedes to the President the virtually unbounded power to tax and otherwise regulate imports?”