Section 232 Derivative Articles: BIS Proposes 14 More, and Comments Close August 27

On August 6, 2026, the Bureau of Industry and Security published “Request for Public Comments on the Proposed Implementation of Duties on Additional Aluminum, Steel, and Copper Derivative Articles Under Section 232” in the Federal Register at 91 FR 50756, pages 50756–50758, Volume 91, Number 150. The notice carries Docket No. 260803-0182 and XRIN 0694-XC166, and was signed by Jessica Curyto, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Security, on August 4, 2026.

Read the title carefully. This is a request for comments on a proposed implementation. No duties have been imposed on any of the products below, and nothing on this page describes a rate you owe today. What the notice does is put 14 product categories on the record as candidates for inclusion, and open a window to say something about them.

That matters most to companies that have never thought of themselves as steel, aluminum, or copper importers. A derivative inclusion does not change your product, your supplier, or your classification. It changes who pays a Section 232 duty. An exporter of brass-wind instruments, a distributor of fire extinguishers, or an importer of agricultural trailers can be outside the metals tariff regime one quarter and inside it the next, without having altered anything about the goods.

What BIS is proposing

The notice comes from the Office of Strategic Industries and Economic Security at BIS, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Its authority is Proclamation 11021 of April 2, 2026 (91 FR 18201), which empowers the Secretary of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative, acting jointly, to add derivative articles to the Section 232 aluminum, steel, and copper actions. Those underlying actions are Proclamation 9704 (aluminum), Proclamation 9705 (steel), and Proclamation 10962 (copper).

If you followed the 2025 steel and aluminum “inclusions window” process, set that mental model aside. This is a different docket under a different authority, and it covers copper as well as steel and aluminum.

The notice's Background describes the candidate products as goods “composed predominately of aluminum, steel, and/or copper by weight.” No numeric threshold is stated. There is no published percentage that tells you whether your product qualifies as predominately metal.

The 14 proposed articles

Fourteen product categories are named, spanning 20 distinct HTSUS codes. Work from the codes, not the descriptions — the headings are shorthand, and in two cases the proposal is narrower than the heading suggests.

The filled steel containers item works differently again. The three codes cited — 2711.12.0020, 2804.40.0000, and 2901.22.0000 — are chemical classifications in Chapters 27, 28, and 29. They are not container codes. The duty would attach at the chemical's tariff line, but BIS proposes that it apply only to the container's value.

The rule most importers still get wrong: full customs value, not metal content

This is the single most consequential thing on the page, and it is the thing most likely to be missed by anyone budgeting from older guidance.

Proclamation 11021, clause (1), effective April 6, 2026, provides that “the additional ad valorem duty imposed pursuant to section 232 … shall apply to the full customs value of the imported product, regardless of metal content.”

The 2025 regime was the opposite. Under it, the Section 232 duty applied only to the steel or aluminum content of a derivative article — the metal value, not the whole product. Proclamation 11021 reversed that. A great deal of internal guidance, landed-cost spreadsheets, and supplier correspondence still assumes the content-only rule, because that is how the regime worked for most of last year.

The practical consequence is arithmetic. On a $500 fire extinguisher with a modest steel content, a content-only 25% duty and a full-value 25% duty are not close to each other. If you are budgeting from the old content-only rule, your exposure is materially understated.

What the rates actually are

No rate in this notice is flat. Beneath the headline percentages sit reduced rates for UK-origin metal content, and a 10% rate where the metal content is entirely U.S.-smelted-and-cast or melted-and-poured. Two items work differently still.

The agricultural trailer item is not an additional 15%. Proclamation 11021, clause (5), is a Column 1 top-up rather than an add-on. Where the Column 1 duty rate is under 15%, the Column 1 rate plus the Section 232 rate together total 15%. Where Column 1 is already 15% or more, the additional Section 232 rate is zero. Clause (5) runs until December 31, 2027.

The two crane and lifting-frame items carry no rate at all in the notice. Instead, the notice cross-references Proclamation 11032, whose baseline is 25% and which also sunsets on December 31, 2027. For USMCA-qualifying products of Canada and Mexico, Proclamation 11032 clause (2)(d) provides that the 25% applies only to non-U.S. content, with a floor of 15% ad valorem.

One more piece of language worth noticing: every rate in the notice is hedged. Products “would generally be subject to” the stated treatment. None of it is a commitment.

The notice sets no effective date

There is no effective date in this notice. There is no implementation timeline, and no date by which BIS says it will decide. That is genuinely useful information rather than an omission on our part: anyone telling you these duties start on a particular day is reading something that is not in the document.

What that means operationally is that you cannot plan around a date. You can only plan around a list of codes.

What BIS is asking commenters to address

The notice invites comment on five points, quoted here in full:

“(i) the aluminum, steel, and/or copper intensity of these products, (ii) whether imports of the products are of such volume as to undermine national security, (iii) the extent to which domestic production of the products can meet domestic demand, (iv) the effect on the economy, including domestic industry, if the products are included as derivative articles, and (v) any other relevant factors.”

Point (i) is the one to watch. BIS asks about metal “intensity” and does not define the term. Read alongside the Background language about products “composed predominately of aluminum, steel, and/or copper by weight,” with no numeric threshold stated, this is an open question rather than a test you can pass or fail on paper. If your product sits well below what anyone would call predominately metal, that is worth putting on the record — with your own figures.

How to comment before August 27

The deadline is stated plainly in the notice: “Comments may be submitted at any time but must be received by August 27, 2026.”

Comments are submitted through www.regulations.gov. The notice states: “The regulations.gov ID for this notice is BIS-2026-0331. Please refer to XRIN 0694-XC166 in all comments.”

• Business-confidential submissions must have filenames beginning with “BC”.
• Public versions must be marked “PUBLIC” with filenames beginning with “P”.
• Files beginning with neither BC nor P are treated as public. The naming convention is the control — not a cover note.

One honest note on posture. BIS states that the notice-and-comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act are inapplicable because the notice “involves a military function of the United States (5 U.S.C. 553(a)(1)),” and that it is inviting comment voluntarily “because public input may help to better inform the decision-making process.” The comment period is therefore discretionary. It is being offered, not owed. That is a reason to use it well, not a reason to skip it.

What happens next

The notice does not say. No decision date, no timeline, no indication of which items are more or less likely to be included. Anything beyond “comments close August 27” is speculation.

What is within your control before the window closes:

1. Check your entry summaries against the 20 codes above, not against the product descriptions. Classification, not category, decides this.
2. Re-model exposure on full customs value. If your figures were built on the content-only rule, rebuild them. This is where the number changes most.
3. Check whether the narrower limits help you. Free-standing floor safes and non-lamellar aluminum powder are narrower than the codes they sit under.
4. For crane, lifting-frame, and USMCA-origin goods, work the Proclamation 11032 mechanics — including the non-U.S. content rule and the 15% floor for qualifying Canadian and Mexican products.
5. Decide whether to file. If you have production data, volume data, or intensity data that BIS does not have, the notice is asking for exactly that.

Frequently asked questions

Are these Section 232 duties in effect now?

No. The August 6, 2026 notice is a request for public comments on a proposal. BIS has not imposed duties on any of the 14 proposed articles, and the notice sets no effective date, no implementation timeline, and no date by which a decision will be made. Every rate in the notice is hedged as what a product would generally be subject to.

How do I know whether my product is on the list?

Work from the HTSUS code on your entry summary rather than the product description in the notice. Two of the headings are narrower than they sound: only free-standing floor safes are proposed under 8303.00.0000, and only aluminum powder of a non-lamellar structure is proposed under 7603.10.0000. Before any filing, a licensed U.S. customs broker verifies classification and entry details.

Would the duty apply to my whole product or only its metal content?

To the whole product. Proclamation 11021 provides that the additional ad valorem duty imposed pursuant to section 232 shall apply to the full customs value of the imported product, regardless of metal content, effective April 6, 2026. The one carve-out in this notice is the filled steel containers item, where BIS proposes the tariff would only apply to the value of the metal container and would not apply to the value of a filled container's contents.

Can I file a comment, and how?

Yes. Comments go to www.regulations.gov. The notice states that comments may be submitted at any time but must be received by August 27, 2026, that the regulations.gov ID for the notice is BIS-2026-0331, and that commenters should refer to XRIN 0694-XC166 in all comments. Business-confidential submissions need filenames beginning with BC, and public versions marked PUBLIC with filenames beginning with P. Files beginning with neither are treated as public.

What happens after August 27, 2026?

The notice does not say. It gives no decision date and no implementation timeline. BIS also states that the notice-and-comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act are inapplicable because the notice involves a military function of the United States, and that it is inviting comment voluntarily because public input may help to better inform the decision-making process, so this comment period is discretionary rather than required.

The bottom line

Nothing has been imposed. BIS has published 14 candidate product categories across 20 HTSUS codes, given no effective date, hedged every rate, and opened a voluntary comment window that closes August 27, 2026.

The most valuable thing on this page is not the list. It is the rule underneath it: since Proclamation 11021 took effect on April 6, 2026, a Section 232 derivative duty applies to the full customs value of the imported product, regardless of metal content. If your exposure model still assumes the 2025 content-only approach, the list matters far more to you than you currently think it does.

Greenwich coordinates U.S. customs brokerage through licensed customs broker partners. Before any filing, a licensed U.S. customs broker verifies classification and entry details.

Primary sources: BIS, “Request for Public Comments on the Proposed Implementation of Duties on Additional Aluminum, Steel, and Copper Derivative Articles Under Section 232,” 91 FR 50756, August 6, 2026 (Federal Register; govinfo PDF); Proclamation 11021, 91 FR 18201; Proclamation 11032. Confirm the current HTSUS Chapter 99 instructions and exact product line before filing. This article is operational guidance for importers and is not legal advice.