Section 232 creates reduced-duty aluminum investment program

This proclamation modifies the Section 232 aluminum tariff regime by authorizing the Commerce Department to establish an investment incentive program for new US primary aluminum production capacity. Under the program, a company with an approved onshoring plan may annually import a quantity of primary aluminum at half the Section 232 duty rate otherwise in effect.

To qualify, an onshoring plan must include a commitment to build, refurbish, or expand a US facility that will produce primary aluminum, and a commitment that construction will start by January 20, 2029. Commerce may consider factors such as project timing, milestones, anticipated annual production, projected costs, and how the tariff benefit will be allocated among applicants.

The proclamation does not itself set the HTSUS changes. Instead, Commerce, in consultation with Homeland Security, USTR, and the USITC, is to determine whether HTSUS modifications are needed and make them through a Federal Register notice. Approved plans will be monitored, and tariff benefits may be rescinded, including retroactively to the extent permitted by law, if commitments are not met or if fraud or deliberate misrepresentation is found.