Over 1,000 seek $16 billion China tariff tranche outs

Tuesday was the deadline for industry to submit exclusion requests for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s second tranche of Section 301 tariffs.

   The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Tuesday closed the request period for exclusions from 25 percent tariffs covering $16 billion worth of goods from China in 2017 import value.
   As of about 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, USTR had posted 1,345 exclusion submissions, according to the exclusion request docket on Regulations.gov.
   The docket on Tuesday morning indicated the agency has received a total of 2,015 submissions, which may include exclusion requests and stakeholder responses supporting or opposing the requests.
   USTR additionally has posted status updates on 984 requests for exclusions from the $16 billion tariff tranche imposed Aug. 23.
   According to a running spreadsheet last updated on Friday, 142 of those requests were in Stage 1, the public comment period whereby 14 days is allotted for interested persons to respond to exclusion requests posted to the docket and another seven days is allowed for requesters to reply to the response.
   Another 842 requests posted in the spreadsheet were in Stage 2, which entails an initial substantive review of whether an exclusion should be granted, based on criteria USTR has set forth.
   According to the spreadsheet, no requests had moved on to the final stages — Stage 3 or Stage 4 — which involve, respectively, an administrability review by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and a final action granting exclusion from tariffs.
   USTR also hasn’t denied any exclusion requests for the $16 billion tranche, according to the spreadsheet.
   This contrasts with a first tranche of 25 percent tariffs launched July 6 on goods from China covering $34 billion worth of goods in 2017 import value, for which USTR has denied 1,487 requests, according to another spreadsheet updated Friday.
   Out of a total of 10,784 requests listed in that spreadsheet, 652 requests were undergoing CBP administrative review, while no exclusions had been granted.
   USTR is not expected to establish an exclusion process for a third tranche of tariffs, assessed at a rate of 10 percent across $200 billion worth of goods from China.