The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has released the second tranche of products from China that will be subject to 25 percent retaliatory duties pursuant to the USTR’s Section 301 Report findings that “China’s acts, policies and practices related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation are unreasonable and discriminatory, and burden U.S. Commerce.” These retaliatory duties, which cover an additional $16 billion in imported Chinese products, will go into effect on August 23, 2018.

As noted in our prior client alert, on June 15, 2018, the USTR released a list of 284 tariff lines that it proposed be subject to 25 percent retaliatory duties. Subsequent to an expedited notice and comment period, the USTR determined that all but five of the 284 tariff items should remain. Those five removed tariff provisions are listed below:

Similar to the first list of tariff provisions now subject to retaliatory 25 percent duties as of July 6, the USTR noted that it will implement a formal process to allow for exclusion requests for products impacted by this second list of additional tariffs. We expect the details regarding the exclusion procedure to be published in the Federal Register in the near future.