The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced a process to obtain product exclusions from the additional tariffs in effect on certain products imported from China (Section 301 tariffs).

The Text of the Federal Register notice outlining the criteria and process for a product exclusion request and public requests, responses, and replies will be received via Regulations.gov. The official Federal Register Notice is expected sometime this week.

USTR may consider whether a product is available from a source outside of China, whether the additional duties would cause severe economic harm to the requestor or other U.S. interests, and whether the product is strategically important or related to Chinese industrial programs including “Made in China 2025”.

The exclusion process has the following important dates and features:

• The public will have 90 days to file a request for a product exclusion; the request period will end on October 9, 2018.
• Following public posting of the filed request on www.regulations.gov , the public will have 14 days to file responses to the request for product exclusion. After the close of the 14-day response period, interested persons will have an additional 7 days to reply to any responses received in support of or opposition to the request.
• Exclusions will be effective for one year upon the publication of the exclusion determination in the Federal Register, and will apply retroactively to July 6, 2018.

Because exclusions will be made on a product basis, a particular exclusion will apply to all imports of the product, regardless of whether the importer filed a request. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection will apply the tariff exclusions based on the product.

USTR strongly prefers electronic submissions be made through the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. The docket number is USTR-2018-0025.

For assistance with applying for an exclusion, contact [email protected].