The United States Trade Representative ("USTR") today formally announced that it will impose an additional Section 301 duties of 10 percent ad valorem on goods of China with an annual trade value of approximately $300 billion.
As part of its announcement, USTR published two lists of tariff subheadings to which the Section 301 duties will apply. For List 1, new duties are effective September 1, 2019. List 2 includes products where China's share of U.S. imports from the world is 75 percent or greater for each subheading. To provide a longer adjustment period for U.S. interested persons, the additional duty of 10 percent ad valorem will not be effective until December 15, 2019.
These duties are in response to China's trade practices that have been deemed unduly burdensome and discriminatory to U.S. commerce by this administration. Since August 2017, the United States has used Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose a series of escalating retaliatory tariffs on Chinese imports.
USTR will publish a separate notice containing procedures for importers to request exclusions from the new duties in the coming weeks.
Schagrin Associates has helped a number of clients navigate the process in both requesting exclusions for specific products and opposing exclusion requests made by other interested parties.