On Monday, February 10th, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced an additional set of product exclusions from Section 301 List 1 Chinese tariffs.

The List 1 notice contains 4 specially prepared product descriptions that are completely excluded from the 25% tariffs. The Section 301 List 1 tariffs initially spanned 818 products and impacted $34 billion worth of trade.

The four product descriptions that will be granted exclusions are as follows and are to be inserted as exclusions in numerical order following the latest exclusion, “(93)”:

  • (94) Centrifugal pumps, submersible, designed for use in artificial lift systems for extracting oil and gas (described in statistical reporting number 8413.70.2004)
  • (95) Pistons and housings for hydraulic fluid power pumps of the type used in power lawn mowers (described in statistical reporting number 8413.91.9050 prior to January 1, 2019; described in statistical reporting number 8413.91.9060 effective January 1, 2019)
  • (96) Furnace roll end-shafts of steel (described in statistical reporting number 8417.90.0000)
  • (97) Multi-phase AC motors of an output of at least 5.8 kW but not exceeding 14.92 kW, each assembled with planetary gears and a gearbox (described in statistical reporting number 8501.52.4000)

The latest round of exclusions will retroactively apply to all products meeting the specified criteria effective July 6, 2018 – the date the U.S. first imposed List 1 duties – and will expire on October 1, 2020, as a full year “would have resulted in disparities in the effective periods between exclusions granted early in the exclusion process and those granted later.”

All importers who have an eligible product are able to claim an exemption under the new exclusions, regardless of whether the importer filed an exclusion request.

The Federal Register plans to release the official notice tomorrow, Tuesday, February 11th.

For all Shapiro customers, if you have requested this service, your Shapiro point of contact will be in touch shortly to discuss the latest round of exclusions, should they apply to your products.

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