On October 21, 2019, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced the process to obtain product exclusions from List 4 of the Section 301 tariffs on certain goods of Chinese origin.

Section 301 List 4 was published on August 20, 2019 in Federal Register Notice (FRN) 84 FR 43304 and was broken down into two annexes, A and C; this product exclusion process is for Annex A only.

According to the announcement, the USTR will publish a Federal Register notice next week, outlining the criteria for the proposed exclusion process and will allow the public to request exclusions of a product from the additional duties.  The USTR will open the electronic submission portal from October 31, 2019 through January 31, 2020.

The USTR’s press release can be found here:

https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/enforcement/section-301-investigations/section-301-china/china-section-301-tariff#

The draft of the FRN can be found here:

https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/301Investigations/Procedures_for_Requests_to_Exclude_Particular_Products_from_the_August_2019_Action.pdf

The FRN including the classifications affected can be found here:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/08/20/2019-17865/notice-of-modification-of-section-301-action-chinas-acts-policies-and-practices-related-to