USTR Announces Procedures for Seeking Exclusions From New Chinese Tariffs
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced procedures for requesting product exclusions from Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on goods from China. The procedures are for a second list of 284 lines of products newly proposed for tariffs on June 15 (see 1806150030). Written comments on that second list are due July 23 with a public hearing scheduled for July 24. Post-hearing rebuttal comments are due July 31.
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Exclusion requests will be due Oct. 9, and if granted will apply for a year retroactively to July 6, said the agency in a notice to be published this week in the Federal Register. Exclusions will be made on a “product basis,” so “a particular exclusion will apply to all imports of the product, regardless of whether the importer filed a request,” it said.
In deciding whether to grant the exclusion, the USTR “may consider whether a product is available from a source outside of China," whether the additional duties would cause severe economic harm to the requestor or other U.S. interests, and whether the particular product is strategically important or related to Chinese industrial programs, it said. Once a request is filed, the public will have 14 days to file responses to the exclusion request, it said. After that 14-day period, “interested persons” will have seven days to reply to those responses, it said. Exclusion requests, responses and replies will be submitted via regulations.gov in docket USTR-2018-0025, it said.
Each request will need to include a statement of “rationale” for seeking the exclusion, said the USTR. The agency will want to know “whether the particular product is available only from China,” and if imposing additional duties on the product “would cause severe economic harm to the requester or other U.S. interests,” it said. The USTR “will evaluate each request on a case-by-case basis, taking into account whether the exclusion would undermine the objective of the Section 301 investigation” to punish the Chinese for allegedly unfair trade practices, said the agency.