USTR Announces Process for Requesting Exclusions From List 4A of Section 301 Tariffs on China

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced procedures for requesting product exclusions to some of the fourth list of Section 301 tariffs on products from China. A subset of those tariffs took effect on Sept. 1 (see 1908270066), while the rest of the tariffs are scheduled to begin on Dec. 15. This process only applies to tariffs that began on Sept. 1, it said.

Exclusion requests will be due by Jan. 31, 2020, and can be submitted through the USTR portal starting Oct. 31, the agency said. "Any exclusion will be effective for one year, starting from the September 1, 2019 effective date," it said. Previous rounds of exclusions applied for a year following publication in the Federal Register.

In deciding whether to grant the exclusion, USTR looks at whether a product is available from a source outside of China, "whether the additional duties would cause severe economic harm to the requestor or other U.S. interests," and "whether the particular product is strategically important or related to Chinese industrial programs including 'Made in China 2025,’” it said. Once a request is filed, the public will have 14 days to file responses to the exclusion request. After that 14-day period, “interested persons” will have seven days to reply to those responses.