On March 20, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released an additional list of partially or fully excluded Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) subheadings in regard to Section 301 List 1 tariffs.

The 33 newly excluded HTS subheadings supplement the original list of 22 HTS subheadings previously excluded by the USTR on December 21, 2018. To date, the USTR has denied 4,535 requests out of the 11,000 List 1 exclusion requests submitted for further periodic review.

The exclusions will retroactively apply to all products meeting the specified criteria. Hence, the effective date of these new exclusions is July 6, 2018 – the date the administration first imposed the additional 25% duties on $34 billion of Chinese products. All importers who have an eligible product are able to claim an exemption under the new exclusions for up to a year from the date of the official notice.

The additional list of HTS subheadings that have been completely excluded from the List 1 tariffs are as follows:

  • 8414.21.0045, 8430.31.0040, 8607.21.1000.

The additional list of HTS subheadings that have been granted partial exclusion from the List 1 tariffs are as follows:

  • 8413.70.2004, 8413.81.0040, 8413.91.9095, 8413.91.9080, 8414.90.4165, 8421.19.0000, 8421.21.0000, 8421.22.0000, 8421.99.0040, 8428.32.0000, 8431.49.9095, 8439.91.9000, 8471.70.6000, 8479.10.0060, 8481.30.9000, 8501.10.4020, 8501.31.5000, 8504.32.0000,  8515.11.0000, 8538.90.6000, 8539.90.0000, 9013.80.7000, 9014.80.2000, 9018.90.7580, 9027.90.5650, 9031.80.8085.

Click here to view the annex of the USTR’s official notice, which provides further detail on the new exclusions.

Shapiro will continue to monitor the situation and will provide updates as they become available. Please contact us at [email protected] with any questions related to exclusions for Section 301 Chinese tariffs.