Additional List 1, 2 and 3 Products from Mainland China Excluded from Section 301 Tariffs

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has announced a range of products that will be excluded from the additional 25 percent duty imposed under Section 301 on (i) some US$34 billion worth of imports from mainland China (List 1 goods), (ii) some US$16 billion worth of imports from mainland China (List 2 goods), and (iii) some US$200 billion worth of imports from mainland China (List 3 goods).

Covering a total of 437 specially prepared product descriptions that reflect 1,170 exclusion requests, these exclusions will be retroactive to 6 July 2018 (List 1 – 310 product descriptions), 23 August 2018 (List 2 – 89 product descriptions) and 24 September 2018 (List 3 – 38 product descriptions) and remain in place for a period of one year from the date of publication of an official notice in the Federal Register, with the exception of the List 3 exclusions which will apply through 7 August 2020. Interested parties may continue to submit product exclusion requests for List 3 goods through 30 September.

The exclusions must be claimed using new HTSUS subheadings 9903.88.14 (List 1), 9903.88.17 (List 2) or 9903.88.18 (List 3). They are available for any product that meets the specified product description, regardless of whether the importer filed an exclusion request. USTR notes that the scope of each exclusion is governed by the scope of the product descriptions set forth in its notice and not by the product descriptions in any particular request for exclusion.

USTR has also made technical amendments to List 3, List 4A and List 4B to state that, effective 24 September 2018, the Section 301 additional tariff will not be imposed on goods classified under any of 39 subheadings “if the applied rate of duty for an entry is derived from another subheading and if the entry, for this reason, already is subject to the additional tariff.” In other words, if a component of a good in one of these subheadings is subject to the Section 301 tariff, the good itself will not be subject to that tariff as well. This relieves double Section 301 tariffs that applied to sets, ensembles, etc.

The draft Federal Register notices with the full list of exempted products are available here, here and here.