New Chinese Tariff List Does Not Include Steel Wheels

The White House, through the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, today released a revised list of Chinese goods that will be hit with a 25 percent tariff because of concerns over intellectual property theft and force technology transfers. One item not included in this new list is steel wheels, for which a petition had been submitted to add them to the tariff list. The RV Industry Association opposed this addition and filed comments with USTR last month.

The list is divided into two parts, one containing 818 tariff lines that were included in the original notice from USTR in April, and a second containing 284 new items for a combined total of 1,102 tariffs lines.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin collecting a 25 percent duty on the original 818 items, beginning July 6. That list covers approximately $34 billion of imports from China, is culled from the original list of 1,333 tariff lines that USTR published on April 6. More than 500 tariff lines were removed from the original list, including televisions, USTR said.

The second list contains 284 tariff lines and covers approximately $16 billion worth of imports from China. USTR will undertake a further public notice and comment process, including a public hearing, before deciding finally whether to impose duties on those goods.

USTR also said it would establish an exclusion process so companies could request specific products to be exempted from new duties. USTR will issue a notice in the Federal Register with details regarding this process within the next few weeks.