The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published a new list covering “essentially all products not currently covered” by List 1, List 2, and List 3. With a trade value of $300 billion, List 4, as it has come to be named, contains approximately 3,805 HTS subheadings all being considered for an additional 25% tariff. Officials from USTR are asking the public to submit comments.

Product categories explicitly excluded from List 4 include:

• Any product already excluded from 25% tariff increase
• Pharmaceuticals and select medical goods
• Rare earth materials and critical minerals

Public comments must be submitted in writing by June 17, 2019. If you would like to attend the hearing USTR is holding in regards to List 4, comments must be submitted by June 10, 2019, with the hearing scheduled for June 17. All comments and requests to appear at the hearing must be submitted electronically at www.regulations.gov or via email to 301investigation@ustr.eop.gov.

The full annex from USTR can be found here. If you run into issues submitting public comments, please contact USTR at (202) 395–5725.

In retaliation, China’s Ministry of Finance announced their own slate of tariff hikes. China will increase the duty on $60 billion worth of U.S. imports, scheduled to take effect June 1, 2019. Proposed products and tariff rates are as follows:

• List of products to incur 25% tariff increase
• List of products to incur 20% tariff increase
• List of products to incur 10% tariff increase
• List of products to incur 5% tariff increase

Trans-Border will continue to monitor the situation. If you have any questions, please reach out to Bill Carey, Import Compliance Manager, at bcarey@tbgfs.com or (800) 493-9444.