USTR Grants Nearly 1,000 Exclusions From List 1 of Section 301 Tariffs

Just over 4,500 Section 301 exclusion requests have been denied by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, according to an update published late Feb. 28. There have been 985 exclusion requests granted, covering 21 tariff lines. The largest number of the granted requests were for plastic injection molds, three types of radial bearings, linear-acting hydraulic motors and water coolers. This is much larger than the last update, published Dec. 21, 2018, when fewer than 25 had been granted (see 1812240010).

The exclusions to the 25 percent tariff apply retroactively to July 6, 2018, the date the first tranche of tariffs took effect, and will remain in effect until one year after the USTR’s notice is published in the Federal Register. All the granted exclusions are drawn from the initial list of tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods. Unlike exclusions from Section 232 duties, all importers of subject goods may take advantage of the Section 301 tariff exemptions, not just those that filed the exclusion requests.

About 3,300 requests on hundreds of tariff lines have been tentatively approved by USTR, if CBP says the exclusions are administrable. Forty-four of those requests date back to July; another 179 were first posted in August. Some of the more frequent tariff lines in this set include 8413810040, pumps; 8413919080, parts for pumps; 8413702004, submersible pumps; 8431390080, parts used on machinery for lifting, handling, loading and unloading; both water purifiers and parts for them -- 8421210000 and 8421990040; and 8421398015, dust collection and air purification devices.

In all, 10,837 requests have now been published by USTR from the first tranche of requests.