As July 6th approaches – marking the one year anniversary since the U.S. first imposed an additional 25% duties on Chinese products –  members of Congress are seeking automatic extensions on List 1 products already granted exclusions from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

Thus far, all importers who have an eligible product have been able to claim an exemption under the new exclusions for up to a year from the date the official notice was posted in the Federal Register. Lawmakers claim it would be a mistake for the existing exclusions to expire, despite unresolved, and seemingly worsening, tensions with China.

To date, the USTR has granted 2,400 exclusions on List 1 goods spanning five separate announcements, but has denied the vast majority of requests. The office has yet to make a determination on any List 2 product exclusions nor has it outlined an official process for submitting requests on List 3 goods, as promised in the notice published May 20th. However, once List 3 exclusions are announced by the USTR, lawmakers have urged representatives to apply relevant exclusions retroactively to September 2018 – when the third round of duties went into effect.

Pundits have also noted that some of the products included on the proposed List 4, covering more than $300 billion in Chinese products, have already been exempted from List 1 or List 2.

Shapiro will continue to monitor and provide status updates on our Section 301 Tariff News page as they become available.