USTR Extends Many List 4 Section 301 Tariff Exclusions, Leaves Others to Expire Sept. 1

More than half of all exclusions from list four Section 301 China tariffs are set to expire Sept. 1, after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative declined to extend them in the run-up to their expiration. USTR granted extensions to 87 of the more than 200 list four exclusions published to date.

The over 200 expiring exclusions are found in U.S. Notes 20(rr), (uu), (ww), (zz), (bbb), (ddd) and (fff), and are filed under tariff schedule subheadings 9903.88.39, 9903.88.42, 9903.88.44, 9903.88.47, 9903.88.49 and 9903.88.53. The extended exclusions, now scheduled to expire Dec. 31, will be moved from those tariff provisions to new U.S. Note 20(jjj) and subheading 9903.88.57.

USTR had sought comments on whether to extend exclusions found in those notes in notices published June 26, July 17 and Aug. 11 (see 2006250001 2007150036 and 2008100017). The exclusions from list four, which are the tariffs covering $300 billion in goods that began Sept. 1, 2019, had a uniform expiration date of Sept. 1, 2020.

Exclusions from the tariffs listed in U.S. Note 20(hhh) were not included in USTR's request for comments and aren't mentioned in the notice of extensions but are also slated to expire Sept. 1 unless USTR extends them (see 2008060008).

USTR’s notice lists the exclusions that it is extending until Dec. 31, but not those that are now due to expire. See the notice for a full list of extended exclusions, as well as a concurrence table showing where the exclusions will now be found in the tariff schedule.