The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is requesting comments on whether 11 sets of tariff exclusions granted to Chinese imports on Section 301 List 3 that are set to expire Aug. 7, 2020, should last another year, it said in a notice. The exclusions being considered for extensions are all the List 3 exclusions granted through March 26, it said. The agency will start accepting comments on the extensions on May 1. The comments are due by June 8, it said. Each exclusion will be evaluated independently. The focus of the evaluation will be whether, despite the first imposition of these additional duties in September 2018, the particular product remains available only from China. The companies are required to post a public rationale.
Section 301 tariff exclusion extensions
iRobot expects about $57 million in refunds of the List 3 Section 301 tariffs it has paid since the duties took effect in September 2018, including $6.6 million paid in Q1, Chief Financial Officer Alison Dean said on an April 29 Q1 investor call. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative granted iRobot a tariff exclusion last week on the robotic vacuums it imports from China (see 2004240031). The refunds are expected in several installments this year, Dean said. The exclusion expires Aug. 7.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is requesting comments on whether the set of tariff exclusions on Chinese imports on Section 301 List 2 that are set to expire July 31 (see 1907290023) should last another year, it said in a notice. The agency will start accepting comments on the extensions on May 1. The comments are due by June 1, it said. Each exclusion will be evaluated independently. The focus of the evaluation will be whether, despite the first imposition of these additional duties in August 2018, the particular product remains available only from China. The companies are required to post a public rationale.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is requesting comments on whether the set of tariff exclusions on Chinese imports on Section 301 List 1 that are set to expire July 9 (see 1907080023) should last another year, it said in a notice. The agency will start accepting comments on the extensions on May 1. The comments are due by June 1, it said. Each exclusion will be evaluated independently. The focus of the evaluation will be whether, despite the first imposition of these additional duties in July 2018, the particular product remains available only from China. The companies are required to post a public rationale.
The International Trade Commission recently issued two revisions to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, largely to implement changes that had been previously announced to exclusions from Section 301 tariffs on goods from China and changes to tariffs on goods from the European Union imposed as part of the large civil aircraft dispute. Both revisions were issued by the ITC in March.
The Border Trade Alliance is asking Congress to consider including a “broad removal of tariffs” in the next round of relief funding, but if Congress does not intervene on sections 301 and 232, they recommend lifting tariffs related to the coronavirus pandemic response and an “automatic and indefinite extension” of Section 301 exclusions. They also said that a July 1 date of entry into force for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement would “be too aggressive. We would urge Congress, in consultation with the administration and our trade partners Canada and Mexico, to agree to a new enforcement date, ideally not before January 1, 2021.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will grant one-year extensions to eight exclusions from the first list of Section 301 tariffs on China that were due to expire April 18, it said in a pre-publication copy of a notice posted to its website. The exclusions that weren't extended will expire April 18.
The recently announced exclusions from the Section 301 tariffs on the third list of products from China (see 2003230043) seem to be unintentionally limited by the statutory liquidation timelines, lawyer Chris Kane said in a March 31 LinkedIn post. While the notice allows for retroactive applicability to Sept. 18, 2018, when those tariffs took effect, it's not clear that importers have any way to be fully refunded for that period, he said. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative published the official notice with numerous tranche three exclusions on March 26 (see 2003230043).
The Office of U.S. Trade Representative announced a new round of 301 tariff exclusions (see 2003260009) that includes some medical supplies that were included in the fourth tranche of tariffs.
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