Deadline Approaching - A Snapshot of Section 301 Duties & Your Options!

The trade war has kept members in the trade industry on their toes – here is a recap.

Effective Dates: 

For importers being hit by additional duties it is crucial to know when the additional duties are effective and must be paid. USTR has now issued three lists under 301 Section Trade Remedies. We urge importers to clearly understand which list their products are subject to and develop a business plan on how to prepare for additional import costs.

List 3

• September 17, 2018, USTR issued list 3, which comprises over 5,700 full and partial eight-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) subheadings, which can be found in Annex A to the USTR’s September 21, 2018 Notice. See Federal Register 83 FR 47974.
• The additional import duties for Chinese goods covered under Annex A are effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 AM eastern daylight time on September 24, 2018.
• As of September 24, 2018, are now subject to 10% additional import duties. The 10% increase to 25% has been postponed for 90-days, making the expected effective date March 1 (instead of January 1, 2019)
• Unlike the lists 1 and 2, List 3 does not provide exclusion opportunities. The comment period for List 3 is now closed. 6,194 comments were submitted. USTR has not responded to the comments submitted.

List 2

• List 2 was issued by USTR, covers only 279 eight-digit HTSUS numbers.
• The additional import duties for Chinese goods covered by the August 16, 2018 list were effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 AM eastern daylight time on August 23, 2018.
• As of August 23, 2018, are now subject to 25% additional import duties.
• There is LESS THAN ONE WEEK REMAINING TO file an Exclusion Request with USTR, deadline is December 18, 2018.

List 1

• List 1 comprises over 800 eight-digit HTSUS numbers, and is published in Annex A to the USTR’s Notice of Action.
• The additional import duties for Chinese goods covered by June 20, 2018 were effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 AM eastern daylight time on July 6, 2018.
• As of July 6, 2018, are now subject to 25% additional import duties. 
• The deadline to file an Exclusion Request with USTR was October 9, 2018 via Docket No. USTR-2018-0025. 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.

Your options:

• For all three lists:
• The Section 301 duties only apply to products of China, and are based on the country of origin, not country of export. Contact us today to discuss your country of origin options.
• Do you import for export?
1. Consider bonded warehouse or FTZ's.
2. According to CSMS Message 18-000419, Section 301 duties are eligible for duty drawback for exporters.
• Consider tariff engineering.
• Consider your country of origin, are there other countries you can source from?
• We have other options to explore. Contact us today to discuss your country of origin options and others.

• For List 2: File an Exclusion Request with USTR via Docket No. USTR–2018–0032.
• Deadline: December 18, 2018. 
• Exclusions will be effective for one year upon the publication of the exclusion determination in the Federal Register, and will apply retroactively to August 23, 2018.

The deadline for the formal product exclusions for list 1 is approaching! Contact DTL TODAY at 305-456-3830 or info@diaztradelaw.com.