The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced more exclusions from the 25% additional tariffs on Section 301 List 1, 2, and 3 goods. The exclusions cover 437 specially prepared product descriptions, covering 1,170 exclusion requests.
The new product exclusions will apply as follows:
- List 1 exclusions will be retroactive to July 6, 2018, the effective date of the $34 billion action, and will remain in place until September 20, 2020
- List 2 exclusions will be retroactive to August 23, 2018, the effective date of the $16 billion action, and will remain in place until September 20, 2020
- List 3 exclusions will be retroactive to September 24, 2018, the effective date of the $200 billion action, and will remain in place until August 7, 2020, the new standard expiration date for all List 3 exclusions
Technical Amendments
The USTR has also made technical amendments to Lists 3, 4A, and 4B to relieve the double tariffs applied to some finished goods. These amendments provide that additional duties do not apply to entries under 39 certain 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 additional duties.” Simply put, if a component of a product that falls under one of these subheadings is already subject to the Section 301 tariff, the finished product itself will not also be subject to the additional tariff.
The technical amendments to the $200 billion and $300 billion actions are effective as of the respective effective dates of those actions. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will issue instructions on entry guidance and implementation.
Claim Your Refunds
Importers should review the lists of affected goods and apply for refunds on tariffs paid since the applicable retroactive date. The scope of each exclusion is governed by the scope of the product descriptions set forth in the Federal Register notice, not by the product descriptions in any particular request. The exclusions are available for any product that meets the specified product descriptions, regardless of whether the importer filed an exclusion request.
Click on the links below to view the Federal Register notices:
- List 1 exclusions. Refunds for these goods must be claimed using the new HTSUS subheading 9903.88.14.
- List 2 exclusions. Refunds for these goods must be claimed using the new HSTUS subheading 9903.88.17.
- List 3 exclusions. Refunds for these goods must be claimed using the new HTSUS subheading 9903.88.18.
For more information on Section 301 tariffs, including exclusions and how to apply for duty refunds, please contact a member of OCEANAIR’s Compliance Department at OceanairCompliance@oceanair.net.
OCEANAIR will continue to monitor and provide status updates on our Section 301 China Tariff Updates page as they become available. This page also includes complete listings of all product exclusions granted to date by the USTR.
