In July and August, 2018 the United States Trade Representative (USTR) identified a list of 6,031 tariff lines affecting approximately $200 billion in imports from China for potential additional tariffs of 10 percent and subsequently 25 percent (a tranche of products referred to as “List 3”).   After a notice and comment period, USTR announced late on September 17, 2018 that an additional 10 percent tariff would be imposed on 5,745 of those tariff lines, effective September 24, 2018.  The tariffs would increase to 25 percent on January 1, 2019.  See the list of products to be subject to the additional tariffs here.  Products deleted from the original list include certain consumer electronics, certain chemical inputs, certain health and safety related products, and certain child safety items.  According to USTR’s press release, a formal notice of the imposition of these additional tariffs “will be published shortly” in the Federal Register. 

Additionally, the President made clear in a statement that the United States would “immediately pursue” additional tariffs on other Chinese products worth approximately $267 billion if China retaliated.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY STATUS

As explained in earlier Client Alerts, USTR has now imposed additional tariffs on three separate lists of products from China.  The status of these three lists is summarized below:

• List 1 ($34 billion) – Additional 25 percent tariffs became effective on July 6, 2018. The public may file requests to exclude specific products from the additional tariffs until October 9, 2018.
• List 2 ($16 billion) – Additional 25 percent tariffs became effective on August 23, 2018. The public may file requests to exclude specific products from the additional tariffs until December 18, 2018. See below.
• List 3 ($200 billion) – Additional 10 percent tariffs will become effective on September 24, 2018, increasing to 25 percent on January 1, 2019.

PRODUCT EXCLUSION PROCESS FOR LIST 2

In a notice published on September 18, 2018, USTR announced its process for consideration of requests to exclude products from the second tranche of tariffs on Chinese products (List 2).  Requests to exclude specific products are due to USTR no later than December 14, 2018.  Responses to requests are due no later than 14 days following a request and replies to the responses are due no later than 7 days thereafter.  The process is similar to that announced for List 1.

Based on past practice, we would expect that USTR would announce in the near future a product exclusion process regarding List 3.

TARIFF TRACKER

The King & Spalding Tariff tracker has been updated to reflect the List 3 tariffs announced.  The graphic presents a snapshot of the current status of tariff developments using a map with hyperlinks to lists of specific products affected.  To view the map, click here.