Questions on Economic Impact of Section 301 Tariffs Now Public

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will not open a portal for comments about the economic impact of Section 301 tariffs until Nov. 15 (see 2210120051), but it has now posted the questionnaire, which has a dozen pages of questions, and will allow commenters to target specific Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes.

If a comment concerns a specific HTS code, USTR asks if the additional duties on that product led to changes in domestic manufacturing of either the product or goods that use it as an input, "including in terms of capital investments, capacity and production levels, industry concentration, and profits? Have additional duties on goods covered by this tariff code impacted U.S. workers, including with respect to the level of employment and wages?"

The questionnaire also asks about tariff inversions, and economy-wide questions about both the effects of the tariffs and how effective they have been in changing Chinese behavior.