03/29/21

Department of Commerce Delays Start Date Of The Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis System (AIM).

The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to further delay the March 29 effective date for its final Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis System (AIM). The new effective date for the program will be included in a forthcoming Federal Register notice.

Following direction from the Biden Administration’s “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review” order of Jan. 20, the Commerce Department delayed the Jan. 25 effective date for its aluminum import monitoring system until March 29. The final rule, which was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 23, 2020, can be viewed here.

“In the case of any discrepancies between this announcement and the Federal Register notice, the Federal Register notice prevails. This delay means that licenses will not be required for covered aluminum product imports beginning on March 29, 2021,” said the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration, which oversees the aluminum import monitoring system.

More details about the AIM program are available here. Submit any questions that you may have to ITA at aluminum.license@trade.gov.

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01/26/2021

CBP Announces Delay In Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis System (AIM) Until March 29th

The Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis (AIM) System which was scheduled to begin on January 25th has been delayed until March 29th. This system, is almost identical in nature to the current Steel Monitoring System (SIMA) and requires aluminum importers, or their Customs Brokers, to electronically obtain an import license for each shipment by submitting data through an online portal. The US Department of Commerce says the delay in the final rule’s effective date is to allow the new Administration a chance to review the final rule.

In CBP’s earlier announcement regarding this program, they stated the following:

The new licensing system will be available at https://www.trade.gov/aluminum and will open for pre-registration on January 4, 2021. Importers, brokers, and other license applicants will need to register for an account in order to create a license. The Trade is advised to plan accordingly and obtain any licenses needed for entry in advance from the Commerce website. The new aluminum license system will use the same platform as the steel licensing system (SIMA), so users with an existing steel license account do not need to create new accounts. Commerce has published a final rule concerning the aluminum license. This final rule details the new system, including license requirements and the platform for the license application, see https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/12/23/2020-28166/aluminum-import-monitoring-and-analysis-system.

A list of the affected HTS numbers can be found here.

Please contact your V. Alexander account team with any questions and follow us on our website www.valexander.com for updates on this and other topics.

SECURITY NOTICE: This web post may include hyperlinks to websites outside of our internal control. All hyperlinks in this web post are believed to be legitimate and provided for your convenience, however, we cannot take any responsibility for the safety of outside links. We recommend caution as with any hyperlinks in any web post, and to hover your mouse over the links before clicking to insure the destination is as expected or to visit the sites by going to the main websites for the agencies we reference in your web browser and search for the sites for the mentioned topics from there.