Section 301 Will Hike Some Tariffs in Green Tech

The administration will hike tariffs this year on steel and aluminum, solar cells (including in modules), ship to shore cranes, electric vehicles, lithium-ion EV batteries, battery parts, some critical minerals, certain respirators and face masks, syringes and needles, and will hike tariffs on other Chinese imports next year and in 2026. A White House fact sheet on the tariffs doesn't include more specific dates.

The increased tariffs will cover about $18 billion worth of imports. The overall Section 301 action covers roughly $350 billion worth of goods.

The long-awaited Section 301 report said that China is still stealing U.S. intellectual property and using non-market methods to try to dominate certain sectors, and higher tariffs are needed to protect U.S. investments in strategic sectors.

The administration will open an exclusion process for machinery used in domestic manufacturing, and has already proposed lifting tariffs on 19 tariff lines covering solar manufacturing equipment. In the report's appendixes, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative lists more than 100 types of industrial machinery it believes deserve exclusions.