The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released three additional sets of product exclusions from Section 301 Chinese tariffs. The USTR notice features 3 separate announcements, each containing the specially prepared HTS subheadings partially excluded from Section 301 List 1, 2, and 3 tariffs.

• The List 1 notice contains 310 HTS subheadings partially excluded from 25% tariffs, which cover 724 separate requests.
• The List 2 notice contains 89 HTS subheadings partially excluded from 25% tariffs, which cover 400 separate requests.
• The List 3 notice contains 38 HTS subheadings partially excluded from 25% tariffs, which cover 46 separate requests.

As was the case with other past exclusions, all importers who have an eligible product from List 1 and List 2 are able to claim an exemption under the new exclusions for up to a year from the date the official notice is posted in the Federal Register, regardless of whether the importer filed an exclusion request.

However, the USTR announced that additional List 3 product exclusions will expire on August 7, 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.”

The latest rounds of exclusions will retroactively apply to all products meeting the specified criteria effective July 6, 2018 (List 1), August 23, 2018 (List 2) and September 24, 2018 (List 3) – the dates the U.S. first imposed each round of duties.

The USTR will continue to issue decisions on pending exclusion requests on a periodic basis.

For all Shapiro customers, your Shapiro point of contact will be in touch shortly should this latest round of exclusions 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.