Sorting out the Various China Tariff Lists

Today the Office of the United States Trade Representative announced that USTR had finalized the second tranche of tariffs on Chinese products in response to China’s unfair trade practices.

With some much tariff activity directed toward China, perhaps a walk through of what has been done and where we stand will be of help.

There have been three tranches, or lists, of proposed additional tariffs on China.

TRANCHE ONE

On April 6, 2018, USTR posted in the Federal Register (83 FR 14906) a proposal to place an additional 25% import duty on products covered by 1,333 tariff classifications.

Interested persons filed approximately 3,200 written submissions. In addition, USTR and the Section 301 Committee convened a three-day public hearing from May 15-17, 2018, during which 121 witnesses provided testimony and responded to questions. 515 items were removed from the list

On June 20, 2018, USTR posted in the Federal Register (83 FR 28710) a list of products covering 818 separate U.S. tariff lines.

On July 6, 2018, additional tariffs of 25% began to be applied to those 818 lines.

On July 11, 2018, USTR posted in the Federal Register (83 FR 32181) procedures to apply for exclusions from the 25% tariff on items covered by Tranche 1. The deadline to apply for an exclusion is October 9, 2018. If an exclusion is granted it will be retroactive to July 6th.

TRANCHE TWO

On June 20, 2018, USTR posted in the Federal Register (83 FR 28710) a proposal to place an additional 25% import duty on products covered by 284 tariff classifications.

On August 8, 2018 USTR announced a list containing 279 of the original 284 tariff lines that were on a proposed list that will be subject to 25% additional tariffs. These have not yet gone into effect.

TRANCHE THREE

On July 17 USTR posted a third list, this one with over 6,000 items. Comments are due September 6.