The USTR has announced that the agency will open a comment period on whether to reinstate certain Section 301 tariff exclusions that were previously extended in the past, but were allowed to expire. A copy of the USTR notice can be found here. The process will be limited to those tariff exclusions where the agency had previously received a request to extend coverage of the exclusion, and the agency had granted the extension. Therefore, this process is limited to 549 exclusions identified by the agency. The complete list can be accessed here.
The USTR docket to submit comments will open on October 12, 2021 and last 50-days until December 1, 2021. If an exclusion is reinstated under this process, the relief will be granted retroactively to merchandise entered on or after October 12, 2021, for which the entries are not liquidated at the time the claim to apply the reinstated exclusion is made to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Comments in support of reinstating these exclusions must be submitted per exclusion, and must address, among other things:
Whether the particular product and/or a comparable product is available from sources in the United States and/or in third countries;
Any changes in the global supply chain since September 2018 with respect to the particular product or any other relevant industry developments;
The efforts, if any, the importers or U.S. purchasers have undertaken since September 2018 to source the product from the United States or third countries;
Domestic capacity for producing the product in the United States;
Whether the additional tariffs had an impact on employment at your company;
Whether Chinese suppliers have lowered their prices for products covered by the exclusion following the imposition of duties;
Whether or not reinstating the exclusion will result in severe economic harm to the commenter or other U.S. interests;
In addition, USTR will consider whether reinstating the exclusion will impact or result in severe economic harm to the commenter or other U.S. interests, including the impact on small businesses, employment, manufacturing output, and critical supply chains in the United States, as well as the overall impact of the exclusions on the goal of obtaining the elimination of China’s acts, policies, and practices covered in the Section 301 investigation.
If you are interested to submit comments on any specific exclusions under this process, please contact one of the trade professionals here.