On July 6, 2018, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced the process to obtain product exclusions from the Section 301 tariffs on certain goods of Chinese origin.

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 25% additional duties. During the product exclusion process, the USTR will consider in its determination, “…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 including ’Made in China 2025.’ ”

The exclusion process will have several dates:

• The public will have 90 days, ending on October 9, 2018, to file a request for a product exclusion;

• The public will have 14 days to file responses to the request for product exclusion following the public posting of the filed request on Regulations.gov;

• Interested persons will have 7 days to reply to any responses received in support of or opposition to the request after the 14 day response period;

• Exclusions will be effective for one year upon the publication of the exclusion determination in the Federal Register, and will apply retroactively to July 6, 2018.

As stated in the USTR’s announcement, “a particular exclusion will apply to all imports of the product, regardless of whether the importer filed a request.”

The USTR’s press release may be found here: