Section 301

At a NATO meeting on Tuesday, December 3, 2019, President Trump declared that he was prepared to wait to negotiate a trade agreement with China until after the 2020 U.S. presidential election, dashing hopes that “phase one” of an interim agreement was to be reached soon.  The 15% Section 301 List 4b tariffs are likely…

On November 26, 2019, the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) issued another round of product exclusions pertaining to the 25% Section 301 List 3 Tariffs. The new list of exclusions includes 32 specifically crafted product descriptions that cover 39 separate exclusion requests. To see the full list of products click here. According to the…

The process for filing exclusion requests for products on the Section 301 List 4  begins today, October 31, 2019 and ends on January 31, 2020 The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) published the exclusion request procedures in the Federal Register on October 24, 2019.

Exclusion requests can be submitted via USTR’s portal…

On October 24, 2019, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) granted exclusions for 83 specific HTS numbers which are currently subject to 25 percent Section 301 tariffs under List 3. The product exclusions apply retroactively effective September 24, 2018 until August 7, 2020. To see a full list of the excluded products,…

On October 2, 2019, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Arbitrator ruled in favor of the United States and Boeing in its dispute against the European Union and Airbus on the subsidies provided by the E.U. to Airbus. The ruling permits the U.S. to levy retaliatory tariffs on approximately $7.5 billion worth of European exports to…

On Wednesday, September 11, 2019, President Donald Trump posed an unexpected tweet that the United States would be delaying the implementation of the tariff increase from October 1, 2019 to October 15, 2019 as a “gesture of good will” towards China. Originally, President Trump had planned to increase the current 25% tariff rate on $250 billion…

On August 23, 2019, President Trump announced via Twitter that the tariff rates on Lists 1, 2, and 3, worth approximately $250 billion worth of goods imported from China, will increase from 25% duty to 30% beginning October 1, 2019. Additionally, the President indicated that the tariff rate on the List 4 tariffs currently set to begin on September 1 will increase to 15% from 10%. It is unclear if the tariffs currently set to go into effect on December 15 will also be increased to 15%.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced on August 13, 2019 that several goods included on the upcoming tranche 4 of Section 301 tariffs, including laptops, computer monitors, cell phones, video game consoles, certain toys and certain items of footwear and clothing, will not face additional 10 percent tariffs until December 15, 2019. The agency also said there will be some products excluded entirely from the new set of tariffs for health, safety, national security or “other factors.”