Section 232

Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to investigate whether imports of a specific good threaten to impair national security. If the investigation finds such a threat, the president may adjust imports through tariffs, quotas, or other restrictions. The statute gives the executive broad discretion: "national security" is interpreted to include not only defense needs but also the health of domestic industries supplying the defense base and, more controversially, broader economic security.

The process typically runs as follows: Commerce initiates an investigation (on its own, at another agency's request, or on industry petition), has up to 270 days to report, and the president then has 90 days to decide on action and 15 more days to implement it.

Section 232 was used sparingly for decades — early invocations targeted petroleum imports — but became prominent under the Trump administration. In March 2018, President Trump imposed 25% tariffs on steel and 10% on aluminum imports from most countries, citing Section 232. The action prompted retaliatory tariffs from the EU, Canada, Mexico, China, and others, and a WTO dispute in which a panel ruled in 2022 that the U.S. measures violated GATT rules; the U.S. rejected the finding, invoking the GATT Article XXI security exception.

The Biden administration largely maintained the tariffs but negotiated tariff-rate quota arrangements with the EU, UK, and Japan. Additional Section 232 investigations have covered uranium, titanium sponge, mobile cranes, transformers, and, in 2025, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals among others.

Critics argue Section 232 stretches the national-security rationale to cover ordinary protectionism, weakens the rules-based trading system, and concentrates trade policy in the executive. Defenders contend that maintaining domestic capacity in strategic sectors is a legitimate security interest that multilateral rules already recognize.