July 2020

Nearly a year ago, on August 20, 2019, President Trump and the United States Trade Representative (USTR) imposed a 10 percent ad valorem on imported goods from China, worth an estimated $300 Billion (Tranche or List 4), due to the US’ Section 301 investigation of China’s acts, policies, and practices related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation. Then, on August 30, 2019, the 10 percent ad valorem was raised to a 15 percent ad valorem. On January 22, 2020, the USTR, lowered the ad valorem on goods included on Annex A of List 4 to 7.5 percent and suspended the duties entirely for goods included on Annex C. See 84 FR 69447, 85 FR 3741.

Following the publication of the tariffs, USTR published an Exclusion Process Procedures on October 24, 2019. The July 23, 2020, Federal Register Notice announced that USTR has determined to grant exclusions to items included in the Annex, as well as make certain amendments to previously announced exclusions. Some of the changes are conforming amendments, while others are technical corrections to previously published exclusions.

The notice detailed that “the exclusions are reflected in 11 existing ten-digit HTSUS subheadings and 53 specially prepared product descriptions, which together respond to 242 separate exclusion requests….”

The notice clarified that regardless of who submitted an exclusion request, if a request is granted to any given HTSUS, all items under that HTSUS have been granted exclusion, too. Additionally, remember to check Federal Register Notices because USTR will continue to […]