On December 26, 2023, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced the extension to May 31, 2024, of all current exclusions from Section 301 tariffs on Chinese-origin goods. The extended exclusions include 77 COVID-related exclusions and 352 previously reinstated exclusions. The notice, which was officially published in the Federal Register on December 29, also announced a public comment process to determine whether to further extend any of these 429 product-specific exclusions after May 31, 2024.

The public comment docket for submitting the extension exclusion comments opens today, January 22, 2024, and will close on February 21, 2024. Among other information, the comments will require a description of:

• Whether the commenter supports or opposes extending exclusions;

• The availability of products covered by the exclusion from sources outside of China;

• Efforts undertaken to source the product from the United States or third countries; and

• Why additional time is needed to shift sourcing out of China and on what timeline, if any, the commenter expects sourcing to shift outside of China.

The USTR will evaluate each exclusion on a case-by-case basis and will focus on availability of the product outside of China, the impact of extending the exclusion on U.S. interests, and the overall impact of the exclusion on the goals of the Section 301 tariffs, among other factors. Importantly, interested parties seeking to comment on more than one exclusion must submit a separate comment for each exclusion.