Highlights of Section 232 Public Comments

摘要

The U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) within the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), which has the responsibility for carrying out the ongoing Section 232 investigation, has received an impressive number of public comments to consider in deciding whether U.S. uranium producers should receive trade protection on national security grounds. A total of 834 comments were received. A month since the comment period closed, all submittals have been made public. Even weeding out the multitude of comments from concerned individuals, this still leaves a significant number of comments to review. For those unable to dedicate time to scrutinize the hundreds of pages of carefully crafted arguments, we provide the highlights of some of the key comments submitted. The comments provide interesting insights into the public positions of various concerned parties. The Ad Hoc Utilities Group (AHUG), which represents many of the nuclear generators in the U.S., provided very comprehensive comments, addressing and countering various assertions made by the petitioners. AHUG’s response focuses specifically on the importance of nuclear generation to U.S. national security and stresses that imposing import restrictions would ultimately be harmful to national security. Several utilities also filed separate comments.