Exclusion Extensions Granted for List 4A

On September 2, 2020, via Federal Register Notice, the United States Trade Representative formally announced its determination to extended certain previously granted exclusion requests through the end of the year; December 31, 2020.

On August 20, 2019, and August 30, 2019, the USTR announced modifications to the Annex of List 4A, which increased the additional duties from a 10 percent ad valorem to a 15 percent ad valorem on goods Made in China with an annual trade value of approximately $300 billion, thereafter the tariffs went down to 7.5% as part of the China/US Phase 1 Deal. List 4A essentially covers goods imported from China that were not included in the previous lists 1, 2, and 3.

After these modifications took effect on September 1, 2019, USTR provided the public with an Exclusion Request Process on October 24, 2019. Through these procedures, stakeholders were able to plea to the USTR that their product’s inclusion on the list did not fall in line with the scope of the Section 301 investigation; the legal foundation of the tariff actions.

To date, USTR has granted nearly 7000 exclusion requests. Regardless of who files the request, once a specific HTSUS subheading is granted an exclusion, all products under the same subheading (that similarly meet the text of the exclusion in the federal register notice) can take advantage of the exclusion as well. Similarly, the extensions to the exclusions, detailed in the September 2, 2020 Notice, apply to all products under the given HTSUS and description.

Secondary HTSUS for Extensions 

To properly take advantage of the extension to the exclusion, ensure you insert the following new subheading 9903.88.57 as your secondary HTSUS as noted below:

By inserting the following new U.S. note 20(jjj) to subchapter III of chapter 99 in numerical sequence:

(jjj) The U.S. Trade Representative determined to establish a process by which particular products classified in heading 9903.88.15 and provided for in U.S. notes 20(r) and 20(s) to this subchapter could be excluded from the additional duties imposed by heading 9903.88.15. See 84 FR 43304 (August 20, 2019), 84 FR 45821 (August 30, 2019), 84 FR 57144 (October 24, 2019), and 85 FR 3741 (January 22, 2020). Pursuant to the product exclusion process, the U.S. Trade Representative has determined that, as provided in heading 9903.88.57, the additional duties provided for in heading 9903.88.15 shall not apply to the following particular products, which are provided for in the enumerated statistical reporting numbers:

The chart below details the 87 HTSUS’s whose exclusions have been extended until December 31, 2020.

Annex B

The USTR also provided the public with a chart comparing the original product exclusions with the new extensions granted in the September 2, 2020 Notice:

See FR Doc. 2020-19419.

Did you miss the deadline to file your exclusion or comments? Was your exclusion denied? Now is the time to review all exclusions granted for your HTS’s to determine whether they are applicable to your product. All granted exclusions may apply to any product that meets the USTR’s product description. If you are not tracking exclusions, DTL can assist you to review the granted exclusions and strategize on how to timely file protests and post summary corrections to get refunds from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of paid Section 301 duties.

For background information on China Tariffs and numerous ways to mitigate the effect of the China tariffs, check out our previous blogs. Diaz Trade Law has assisted clients in assessing their best options to prepare or mitigate the China tariffs and submitted comments and exclusion requests. Our Customs and International Law attorneys are available at 305-456-3830 or info@diaztradelaw.com.