Future of Section 301 China Exclusions

By NNR USA In USA Trade Alerts On 6th October 2021

The U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) office has completed its review of China trade policy. There are no plans to remove existing Section 301 tariffs; however, the Section 301 Exclusion process will be restarted. Details are unknown at this time. What we do know today, the USTR will begin accepting requests on October 12^th 2021 to reinstate certain exclusions to the Section 301 China tariffs. A summary of the Federal Register notice is set forth below.

The USTR will consider submissions addressing only those 549 exclusions that were covered by the notice.
All submissions must be received by December 1st, 2021.
Reinstated exclusions will be retroactive to October 12th, 2021. To apply a reinstated exclusion, an Entry must not be liquidated at the time of claim to CBP.
There is no indication of the duration of any reinstated exclusions. The USTR is seeking comments on the appropriate length of the reinstated exclusion.
In determining whether to reinstate an exclusion, the USTR’s focus will be “whether, despite the imposition of additional duties beginning in September 2018, the particular product remains available only from China.”

The USTR asks that requesters address the following criteria with their comment submission:

Whether the particular product and/or a comparable product is available from sources in the United States and/or in third countries.

Any changes in the global supply chain since September 2018 with respect to the particular product or any other relevant industry developments.

The efforts, if any, the importers or U.S. purchasers have undertaken since September 2018 to source the product from the United States or third countries.

Domestic capacity for producing the product in the United States.

In addition, the USTR will consider whether or not reinstating the exclusion will impact or result in severe economic harm to the commenter or other U.S. interests, including the impact on small businesses, employment, manufacturing output, and critical supply chains in the United States, as well as the overall impact of the exclusions on the goal of obtaining the elimination of China’s acts, policies, and practices covered in the Section 301 investigation.