This week, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the first official exemptions and rejections for companies that applied for exclusions from steel and aluminum tariffs. For seven lucky companies, that means they’ll get to stop paying the tariffs on specific imports — 25 percent for steel and 10 percent for aluminum. But for Sam Desai, who works at a company that makes stainless steel parts for appliances, the limbo continues as he starts parsing other companies’ objections to his exemption applications. We get into what that means and how these obstacles are affecting Desai’s business.

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