On June 24, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced in a Federal Register notice the establishment of a process for requesting exclusions from Section 301 duties for products on “List 3.”

List 3 includes thousands of products affecting almost all industries that rely on Chinese imports. It is composed of about 6,000 different Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) codes, and the products on it comprise around $200 billion worth of imports. Beginning in September 2018, importers of List 3 items were subject to a 10% tariff. The tariff rate increased to 25% on May 10, 2019.

Purchasers, trade associations and other interested parties can request that products be excluded from Section 301 duties. The USTR will begin accepting such exclusion requests for List 3 products on June 30, 2019, and the deadline for submitting requests is Sept. 30, 2019. All requests must be submitted through an online portal on USTR’s website that will be active starting June 30.

In addition, domestic producers will also have the opportunity to object to exclusion requests. Responses to individual exclusion requests will be due 14 days after the request is posted on USTR’s online portal.

Any successful exclusion will be retroactively effective on Sept. 24, 2018, the date on which Section 301 duties for products on List 3 went into effect.