Court of International Trade Orders CBP and BIS Depositions in Section 232 Steel Tariff Exclusion Case
Summary
The U.S. Court of International Trade ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Bureau of Industry and Security to sit for depositions in a case filed by G&H Diversified Manufacturing LP seeking Section 232 steel tariff refunds. The CIT limited the discovery scope originally sought by G&H but granted access to certain relevant documents, inter-agency communications, exclusion request procedures, and BIS training materials. This marks the first time the CIT has ordered depositions in a case related to the steel Section 232 exclusions process.
What changed
The CIT issued an order directing depositions of CBP and BIS officials in a Section 232 tariff exclusion challenge brought by importer G&H Diversified Manufacturing LP. The court limited the scope of discovery originally sought by the importer while still ensuring access to relevant inter-agency communications, exclusion request procedures, and BIS policies and training documents. A key issue in the case is whether CBP made a preliminary classification decision related to G&H's steel tubes before BIS issued its exclusion determination.
Importers engaged in Section 232 exclusion disputes with CBP may face increased discovery obligations if called as witnesses. This ruling establishes a precedent for deposition discovery in Section 232 exclusion cases and signals that the CIT will permit limited discovery into agency procedures even where exclusion requests have been denied. Parties involved in similar tariff exclusion litigation should monitor this case for further developments on the scope of permissible discovery.
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Apr 18, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
April 17, 2026
CIT Orders Depositions of CBP and BIS in Section 232 Exclusion Challenge
Eric Dama, Cortney O'Toole Morgan, Nithya Nagarajan Husch Blackwell LLP + Follow Contact LinkedIn Facebook X ;) Embed On April 15, 2026, the U.S. Court of International Trade (“CIT”) ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) to sit for depositions in a case filed by an importer seeking refunds of tariffs imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (“Section 232”).
The importer and plaintiff, G&H Diversified Manufacturing LP, originally filed a complaint seeking to overturn CBP’s denial of G&H’s exclusion request for steel tubes imported in 2020. A major issue in the case is whether CBP made a preliminary classification decision related to G&H’s steel tubes prior to BIS’s exclusion determination.
As a result, the CIT ordered the depositions of CBP and BIS related to the two agencies’ role in evaluating Section 232 steel exclusion requests. In its order, the CIT limited the scope of discovery originally sought by G&H, but still ensured that G&H is entitled to obtain certain relevant documents and communications between the two agencies, the process for making determinations on the relevant exclusion requests, and certain policies, procedures, and training documents used by BIS. This is the first time the CIT has ordered depositions in a case related to the steel Section 232 exclusions process.
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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
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