The United States is turning Section 232 tariffs into firm-specific bargains
The United States has replaced blanket Section 232 tariffs with company-specific agreements that let individual firms avoid duties if they commit to onshore production or accept domestic pricing rules.
Source: Global Trade Alert · August 14, 2026 at 2:52 PM · AI-assisted report
Single-sourceKUALA LUMPUR, 14 AUGUST 2026 —
The United States has replaced blanket Section 232 tariffs with company-specific agreements that let individual firms avoid duties if they commit to onshore production or accept domestic pricing rules.
Market Impact
The shift began with a 13 August 2026 proclamation covering unmanned aircraft systems. It lets a company import covered goods free of the duty if the Secretary of Commerce approves its onshoring plan and ties the volume to the new plant’s expected output. Relief lasts only while the facility is under construction and must start before 20 January 2029.
Firms already on the Department of War’s Blue UAS list or the FCC’s Conditional Approval List get the deferral immediately.
This approach mirrors earlier programmes. A 2 April 2026 pharmaceutical proclamation imposed 100% without a plan, 20% with an approved plan and zero for firms that also agreed to most-favoured-nation domestic pricing. A 20 July 2026 primary-aluminium action opened a half-rate programme for applicants. The 6 August 2026 polysilicon proclamation offered a full waiver to producers whose plans are accepted.
Across drones, pharmaceuticals, primary aluminium and polysilicon, relief now hinges on corporate undertakings rather than the properties of the imported good. Two importers bringing the same component from the same origin can face the full 100% rate or none, depending on an administrative judgement about the firm’s commitment, according to the proclamations. Neither the public nor the higher-paying firm can inspect the approved plan or the decision record.
The company-specific route has no statutory ceiling. Published rates for drones are 100% on larger systems, docking stations and certain components and 25% on smaller drones. An approved plan converts the liability into a zero rate for volumes tied to the promised plant’s annual output. The pharmaceutical programme limits the zero rate to 20 January 2029; from 2 April 2030 the 20% rate rises to 100%.
Using USITC data, Section 232 now covers $975bn of 2024 US goods imports. Once fully implemented in February 2027 it will cover $1,283bn, or 39.6% of imports. The four programmes with company-deal mechanisms account for $389bn of that coverage. These figures measure the trade subject to the actions, not the share receiving relief.
The returns to bargaining have diverged. Government-to-government deals capped rates at 15% and 10% in recent cases. Company-side commitments can deliver a full waiver, provided the firm promises to start building by 20 January 2029. Each programme rewards a single decision—committing to US production—and that decision resides with the company, not its government.
Industries are being sorted internally rather than by origin. Membership of controlled lists like Blue UAS or the FCC’s Conditional Approval List can trigger a day-one deferral, the 14 August 2026 lists show. As of 28 July 2026, the Blue UAS Cleared List and Framework contained more than 100 distinct companies, with one firm appearing on both that list and the FCC Covered List.
The architecture could spread. The proclamations reserve the right to extend onshoring programmes to automobiles and heavy vehicles, which carried $618bn in US imports in 2024, and to steel, at $241bn. Neither sector currently has an onshoring-plan mechanism.
Commerce is required to publish the approval criteria but not the approvals themselves. The proclamations of 2 April, 20 July, 6 August and 13 August 2026 and their annexes set the rates, dates and authorities. Import values are Global Trade Alert calculations on USITC general imports for 2024 at the HS 8-digit level, matched to each programme’s scope; they measure trade covered, not duties collected or relief granted.