US launches national security probe into aluminium imports

Washington

THE US Commerce Department launched an investigation on Wednesday to determine whether a flood of aluminium imports from China and elsewhere was compromising US national security, a step that could lead to broad import restrictions on the metal.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the investigation was similar to one announced last week for steel imports into the United States, invoking Section 232 of a national security law passed in 1962 at the height of the Cold War.