US proposes Section 232 tariff expansion that would hit $9.0 billion of 2025 imports

KUALA LUMPUR, 13 AUGUST 2026 —

The US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security proposed adding 14 steel, aluminium and copper products to the Section 232 tariff programme, a move that would affect about $9.0 billion of 2025 imports not already covered by existing duties.

Imports under the cited tariff lines totalled $13.0 billion in 2025, according to the notice published on 28 July 2026. Excluding filled containers—whose contents customs data cannot separate—measurable trade stood at $9.6 billion, up 13.4% from 2024. Roughly $9.0 billion of that would face new tariffs if the proposal is implemented.

The proposed duties vary by product: 25% on ten articles, 15% on agricultural trailers and 50% on filled steel containers, which would be charged on the container’s value, not its contents. The two crane articles would take the rates set in the June 2026 mobile-industrial-equipment proclamation. No duties are in force yet; any addition requires joint approval from Commerce and the US Trade Representative.

Mexico and Canada account for 41.6% of the measurable trade. China supplies 10.2%, with the largest single shares in brass-wind instruments (36.9%), floor safes (36.3%) and heat exchange unit parts (22.2%). North American partners supply more than half of 2025 imports in five categories: tanker trailers, agricultural trailers, fire extinguishers, other trailers and electric conductor cables.

Parts of linear-acting hydraulic power engines and motors, the largest single article, accounted for $3.7 billion of 2025 imports, followed by electric conductor cables at $3.2 billion. Together they represent just over 70% of the measurable total. A further $5.7 billion moved across all 14 lines in the first five months of 2026, but the figure is not annualised.

Six of the 14 articles have a Section 232 history. Welding-machine parts and one cable line have been covered as aluminium derivatives since March and August 2025 respectively. Fire extinguishers and the three filled-container lines were added as steel derivatives in August 2025 but removed on 6 April 2026 when Proclamation 11021 narrowed the programme’s scope. The notice proposes to restore them without mentioning their prior coverage.

Existing duties complicate the impact. Chinese-origin imports of every article except mobile lifting frames have carried Section 301 duties since 2018–19, mostly at 25%. The forced-labour Section 301 action in force since 24 July 2026 adds 10 to 12.5 percentage points on most lines from most origins. The emergency-powers reciprocal tariffs and the Section 122 surcharge have expired.

A separate Section 338 action imposes a 50% duty on Canadian floor safes, one cable line and one crane line from 19 August 2026.

Inclusion under Section 232 would shift duties in both directions. USMCA-compliant Canadian and Mexican trade, which currently pays no additional duty, would face the full proposed rates. Imports from China and most other origins would replace the forced-labour duty with the higher Section 232 rate, a smaller increase than the headline rates suggest. On the three Canadian lines under Section 338, designation would replace a 50% duty with a lower Section 232 rate.

BIS states that public comment is not legally required because Section 232 actions are treated as a “military function” exempt from the Administrative Procedure Act’s notice-and-comment rule. It is seeking input on five points: metal intensity, import volumes, domestic supply capacity, economic effects and any other relevant factor.

Commerce and the US Trade Representative will then decide article by article whether to bring any of the 14 into scope, with no deadline set for a decision.

For Malaysian exporters shipping steel, aluminium or copper products to the US, the proposal raises the cost of accessing the North American market through USMCA supply chains.