The U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) has published notice in the Federal Register that the USTR will accept Exclusion Requests through an online portal for Chinese-origin merchandise listed on Section 301, Tranche 4A, beginning at noon EDT on October 31, 2019 and ending on January 31, 2020. 84 FR 57144. Products covered by Tranche 4A are listed in Annex A of the notice published 84 FR 43304 (August 20, 2019), and are currently subject to additional tariff rates of 15% ad valorem.

Products which are the subject of a successful Exclusion Request will be excluded from application of the additional 15% tariff. “Interested persons,” including importers, U.S. producers, purchasers, industry/trade associations, and others, can submit requests for exclusion. Interested persons must submit separate requests for each product. If granted, an exclusion will be effective for goods imported on or after September 1, 2019 (the effective date for Tranche 4A), through August 30, 2020 regardless of the date the exclusion is published in the Federal Register. Therefore, importers will have the opportunity to seek refunds from U.S. Customs for additional duties previously paid on products which receive an exclusion.

After a request for exclusion is posted on the USTR portal, interested persons will have 14 days to respond, indicating support or opposition. The requestor will have the opportunity to reply to the response within the later of 7 days after the close of the aforementioned 14 day period, or 7 days after the posting of a response. All responses and replies must be submitted through the USTR portal.

If you are interested in participating in the process described above please contact our office to speak with one of our attorneys.