On March 20, 2019, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced it will grant additional product exclusions under the Section 301 List 1 tariffs.

The initial list of exclusions was released in December 2018 and included 22 HTS subheading exclusions. This new announcement expands on that list, now including 33 HTS subheading exclusions. The effective date of these new exclusions is July 6, 2018 – the date the U.S. administration first imposed the additional 25% duties on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods. The exclusions will retroactively apply to all products meeting the specified criteria, and importers are able to claim an exemption under the new exclusions for up to a year from the date of official notice.

Trans-Border will review our records to help identify any imports on behalf of our clients that may be eligible for a duty refund.  In addition to this exercise, we highly recommend that all of our clients who import merchandise under any of the now excluded tariff numbers, review their records and notify us immediately if they have any transactions that may qualify for a refund of the additional tariff that was initially paid at the time of Entry.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Bill Carey, Import Compliance Manager, at bcarey@tbgfs.com, or give us a call at (800) 493-9444.