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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 234 / Thursday, December 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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GAEs. Commerce will make changes to the GAEs whenever it is warranted to ensure that U.S. national security interests are protected. The adoption of the GAEs was an important step for users of steel and aluminum articles needed for national security applications as has been noted by many commenters on past Section 232 interim final rules. However, Commerce will evaluate all changes to the Section 232
program in light of whether they are improving the effectiveness of the program and whether or not the changes are consistent with the objectives of the Section 232 program.
BIS does not anticipate that suspension of these 30 GAEs will substantially increase the total volume of submitted exclusion requests in the Section 232 Exclusions Portal. BIS has received 2,109 exclusion requests from 109 requestors for articles covered by these 30 GAEs in the Section 232
Exclusions Portal over an approximate two-year period. BIS estimates that the removal of these 30 GAEs will affect roughly 100 requestors who submit exclusion requests and will lead to the submission of an additional 1,100
exclusion requests per year in the Section 232 Exclusions Portal.
Rulemaking Requirements 1. Executive Orders 13563 and 12866
direct agencies to assess all costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety effects, distributive impacts, and equity. Executive Order 13563
emphasizes the importance of quantifying both costs and benefits, of reducing costs, of harmonizing rules, and of promoting flexibility. This rule has been determined to be a significant regulatory action, although not economically significant, under section 3f of Executive Order 12866. Pursuant to Proclamations 9704 and 9705 of March 8, 2018, and Proclamations 9776
and 9777 of August 29, 2018, the establishment of procedures for an exclusions process under each Proclamation shall be published in the Federal Register.
2. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. PRA
provides that an agency generally cannot conduct or sponsor a collection of information, and no person is required to respond to nor be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with a collection of information, unless that collection has obtained Office of Management and Budget OMB

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approval and displays a currently valid OMB Control Number.
This final regulation involves three collections currently approved by OMB
with the following control numbers:
Exclusions from the Section 232
National Security Adjustments of Imports of Steel and Aluminum control number 06940139.
Objections from the Section 232
National Security Adjustments of Imports of Steel and Aluminum control number 06940138.
Procedures for Submitting Rebuttals and Surrebuttals Requests for Exclusions from and Objections to the Section 232 Adjustments for Steel and Aluminum OMB control number 0694
0141.
This rule is expected to increase the burden hours for one of the collections associated with this rule, OMB control number 06940139. This increase is expected because of the removal of 26
GAEs for steel and 4 GAEs for aluminum, which is expected to result in an increase of 1,100 exclusion request submissions per year. These removals are estimated to result in a twenty percent reduction in the burden and costs savings described in the December 14 rule. These GAE removals are expected to be an increase in 1,100
burden hours for a total cost increase of 162,800 dollars to the public. There is also expected to be an increase in 6,600
burden hours for a total cost increase of 257,000 dollars to the U.S. Government.
As Commerce asserted in the December 14 rule that the steel and aluminum articles identified as being eligible for GAEs, including those being removed in todays rule, had not received any objections, the addition of those new GAEs was not estimated to result in a decrease in the number of objections, rebuttals, or surrebuttals received by BIS. As described elsewhere in this rule, the GAEs removed in todays interim final rule did receive objections and/or denials and therefore warrant removal at this time. Because the December 14 rule did not make any adjustments to the collections for objections, rebuttals, or surrebuttals, the removal of these GAEs is estimated to result in no change in the burden associated with the other two collections. Commerce Department intends to provide separate 60-day notice in the Federal Register requesting public comment on the information collections contained within this rule.
3. This rule does not contain policies with Federalism implications as that term is defined in Executive Order 13132.
4. The provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act 5 U.S.C.

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553 requiring notice of proposed rulemaking, the opportunity for public comment, and a delay in effective date are inapplicable because this regulation involves a military or foreign affairs function of the United States. See 5
U.S.C. 553a1. As explained in the reports submitted by the Secretary to the President, steel and aluminum are being imported into the United States in such quantities or under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security of the United States, and therefore the President is implementing these remedial actions as described Proclamations 9704 and 9705 of March 8, 2018 to protect U.S. national security interests. That implementation includes the creation of an effective process by which affected domestic parties can obtain exclusion requests based upon specific national security considerations. Commerce started this process with the publication of the March 19 rule and refined the process with the publication of the September 11, June 10, and December 14 rules and is continuing the process with the publication of todays interim final rule.
The revisions to the exclusion request process are informed by the comments received in response to the December 14
rule and Commerces experience with managing the Section 232 exclusions process.
In the December 14 rule, Commerce took what many commenters characterized as a significant step to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Section 232 exclusions process by adding General Approved Exclusions GAEs. The GAEs are an effort to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Section 232 exclusions process while not undermining the national security objectives of the tariffs by adopting a more efficient authorization mechanism for certain steel and aluminum articles that had not received objections over an extended period of time and with many exclusion requests being submitted for the specified articles. Many commenters on the earlier Section 232 rules requested that Commerce create a type of general approval that could be used by any importer. These commenters on the earlier Section 232 rules, as well as on December 14 rule, indicated that such general approvals would be important to minimize the negative impacts of the tariffs and the inefficiencies of the Section 232 exclusions process, which these commenters indicated was undermining U.S. national security and economic security because of the difficulty and increased costs involved in obtaining needed steel and aluminum
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