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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 97 / Friday, May 21, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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without the benefit of additional party comments. With that, we encourage parties to consider these issues in the next request for comments on the AIM
system.
More generally, we disagree that tracking these types of entries will provide no material insight into the aluminum trade. As has been our experience with SIMA, tracking products with different origin, including U.S. origin, along with products with other origins, is an important function of the monitor and will assist both the trade and Commerce in viewing trends on a near real-time basis. Additionally, tracking potential circumvention trends is not the only purpose for which Commerce is adopting the AIM system.
Further, as explained in the Final Rule, Commerce recognizes that there may be some amount of burden to parties, who may not currently track countryies of smelt information in the normal course of business. To help alleviate any concerns, Commerce is allowing parties additional time to track this information, extending the temporary period to report unknown for these fields to June 28, 2022, as explained in this document.15
We reiterate that, as discussed in the Final Rule, after the AIM system is in place, Commerce will seek additional comments from parties on potential improvements or changes to the system in a subsequent document. Parties may further comment on these issues, or any issues with the AIM system, at that time.
b. Delayed Collection of Country of Smelt Information One commenter requested that the requirement to report the country of smelt and country of second largest smelt be delayed for an additional year beyond the original effective date of December 24, 2021. This commenter noted that the requirement to identify the country or countries where primary aluminum used in the manufacture of aluminum products was smelted was not made clear in the Proposed Rule.
This commenter further explained that this new data field requirement is not currently captured in their existing systems that are used to manage and track all purchases. While this system does track country of origin it is not tied to country of smelt information and tracking it correctly will require substantial reprogramming for the party.
To avoid imposing an undue burden, this commenter consequently requested that Commerce delay the reporting requirement for an additional year.
15 See
Final Rule, 85 FR at 83810.

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Response: As stated above in the Explanation of Changes from the Final Rule section, Commerce is granting the commenters request, in part, and will allow license applicants to continue to state unknown for the country of largest smelt and country of second largest smelt license fields until June 28, 2022. Commerce recognizes that importers may have initial difficulty in securing the information necessary to complete the fields for the country of smelt for the largest and second largest volume of primary aluminum. As such, Commerce will allow filers to state unknown in these fields on a temporary basis. Specifically, unknown may be stated for a period of one year from the beginning of compliance with the Final Rule i.e., up to June 28, 2022 to enable license applicants sufficient time to gather the requisite information. Effective one year from the beginning of compliance of the Final Rule, June 29, 2022, filers will no longer be able to state unknown and will be required to provide the requested information for this field.
This places importers on notice that they need to start collecting the necessary documentation that tracks this information within their supply chains. It will also allow the AIM
system to be launched expeditiously while providing importers an adjustment period to start collecting this information.
2. Expanding the Scope of AIM Program One commenter requested that Commerce consider expanding the scope of the AIM licensing program to include all products classifiable of Chapter 76 of the harmonized tariff schedule.
Response: The AIM system will not require import license for aluminum products other than those covered in the Final Rule. However, Commerce has considered the commenters assertion that collecting data on all aluminum products will support the entire aluminum industry. Accordingly, as discussed in the Final Rule, after the AIM system is in place, Commerce will seek additional comment from parties on potential improvements or changes to the system in a subsequent document.
Parties may comment on the inclusion of these products in the AIM systems import license requirement at that time.
Furthermore, at the sub-regulatory level, Commerce will consider adding additional product groups to the public AIM monitor, beyond the HTS
categories covered by the license requirement, which will be based only on publicly available import data. This would be done in a similar manner as
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the inclusion of aluminum scrap data in the public AIM monitor.
3. Further Documentation and Additional Requirements One commenter requested that Commerce require submission of mill test certificates for various inputs consumed at every stage of production of aluminum products. The commenter stated that this documentation is readily available and should be required with every shipment to verify the location of production and protect against evasion.
Another commenter argued that, to inhibit transshipment, the AIM system should require submission of licenses and supporting documentation to CBP, not simply the license number.
Response: As explained in the Final Rule, Commerce will not adopt these proposals at this time. Although these suggestions have merit and warrant further consideration, adopting them at this time would create additional burdens on which the public has not had an opportunity to comment. In addition, some of these suggestions would necessitate further inter-agency consultation and coordination, which has not been considered for purposes of this rulemaking. Thus, there is no requirement to present physical copies of the license forms or any other documentation at the time of entry summary. However, documents must be maintained in accordance with CBPs normal requirements.16
In addition, we recognize that the AIM system is modeled on the SIMA
system, and CBP requires steel importers to provide mill test certificates for steel imports.17 While CBP could be asked to consider requiring the collection of mill test certificates for covered aluminum products in the future, as they currently do for steel, that requirement is outside of the scope of this rulemaking. That said, as discussed above, after the AIM
system is in place, Commerce will seek additional comment from parties on potential improvements or changes to the system in a subsequent document.
Parties may further comment on these issues at that time.
4. Bonded Warehouses One commenter requested that the AIM system should require licenses for 16 Id.,
85 FR at 83811.
SIMA Modification, 85 FR at 56166 The mill test certification is currently required by CBP
for entry purposes, in accordance with 19 CFR
141.89 and 142.6, and Commerce expects that the mill test certification would be included with the standard sales documentation for steel mill imports and therefore would be readily available to the importer.
17 See
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