How The Tariffs Almost Stole Christmas: Trump Partially Delays List 4 China Tariffs

Last week, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released the Federal Register notice announcing the effective dates for the latest rounds of section 301 tariffs affecting $300 billion of Chinese imports. While this new round is known as List 4, the administration has divided the items into List 4A and List 4B.

After announcing earlier this month that all List 4 items would be subject to the new 10 percent tariffs on September 1, President Trump changed the decision last week in an effort to avoid negatively affecting the Christmas shopping season. Under the new announcement, the tariffs will still go into effect on September 1, for items on List 4A but will be delayed until December 15 for items on List 4B.

With each sub-list taking effect on different dates, it is a tacit admission by the Trump administration that American consumers are paying at least some of the costs of these China tariffs. When asked whether he would consider delaying the tariffs further, President Trump responded, “No, we’re doing this for Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers, which so far, they’ve had virtually none. […] But just in case they might have an impact on people, what we’ve done is we’ve delayed it so that they won’t be relevant for the Christmas shopping season.”

While additional time was given for List 3 goods on the water, these new rounds of tariffs will be effective upon entry (or withdrawal from the warehouse) “for consumption.” USTR reiterated its intent to conduct an exclusion process for products on List 4 but has provided no details at this time.

RV Industry Association staff have reviewed both List 4A and List 4B and narrowed each down to those items which may be of interest to the RV industry. We recommend that you review the full lists should you have concerns about items your company relies on being included. The Association will continue to keep members informed and will update members when an exclusion process is announced.

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