China 301 Tariffs: USTR To Consider Extensions For April And May List 3 Exclusions

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced that it will consider extending exclusions from Section 301 tariffs on certain products. This announcement merely covers products granted an exclusion in April and May of 2020.  

Product exclusions eligible for extension during the new comment period include 332 individual exclusions contained in three separate exclusion announcements published on April 24, 2020, May 8, 2020, and May 21, 2020. Products receiving extensions would remain excluded from the 25 percent Section 301 duties on List 3 for up to an additional 12 months. Recently, however, USTR has been granting exclusions for less than 12 months. Comments will open on June 8, 2020, on USTR’s online portal and the comment deadline is July 7, 2020.

USTR is currently considering extensions for 11 different rounds of expiring List 3 exclusions granted between August 2019 and March 2020. The deadline for comment on the extension of these List 3 exclusions is June 8, 2020.

All List 3 exclusions are set to expire on August 7, 2020. Therefore, this is the only opportunity to comment on the extension of this set of List 3 product exclusions. No exclusions have been extended by USTR in the absence of comments in support of extension. Therefore, as always, we strongly recommend that you consider submitting comments in support of the extension of any product exclusions benefiting you or your suppliers.

ADDITIONAL LIST 1 EXCLUSIONS EXTENDED

This week, USTR also announced another round of List 1 exclusion extensions, this time for products and harmonized tariff schedule (HTS) subheadings with exclusions expiring on June 4, 2020. The extended exclusions cover sixteen specially prepared product descriptions.

While USTR indicated that it would consider extensions of up to 12 months, these exclusions have been extended only through December 2020. The new expiration date for these exclusions is December 31, 2020. All other HTS subheadings and products with exclusions granted in June 2019 will lose their exclusions on June 4, making them subject to the 25 percent tariff applied to List 1 goods.

As always, product exclusions are not importer-specific—they are applicable for any importer of the excluded merchandise. The scope of the exclusions is governed by the language of the product descriptions provided by USTR in its list, not by product descriptions shown in any particular exclusion request or HTS classification.

For more information, please contact Samantha Rocci at srocci@rvia.org.