According to CSMS #38840764, the United States Trade Representative has published the sixth round of goods excluded from the 25 percent duty assessed under the first tranche of Section 301 tariffs on China. This round of exclusions includes 110 subsets of tariff numbers found in HTS chapters 84, 85, and 90. In addition to reporting their true classifications, these goods should be reported under the new tariff subheading 9903.88.11—indicating “imported merchandise subject to the exclusion.”

The exclusions will have a backdated effective date of July 6, 2018, and will be valid for one year following the date of the notice. These exclusions pertain to any product meeting the descriptions found in the Annex to Federal Register Notice 84 FR 32821, and the exclusions are not limited to only those importers who submitted exclusion requests. The scope of the exclusions is governed by the product descriptions in the Annex, not the product description found in exclusion requests.

The CSMS provided the following guidance regarding the refund process: “To request an administrative refund for previous imports of duty-excluded products granted by the USTR, importers may follow the same entry filing instructions as above to file a PSC on unliquidated entry summaries. If the entry has already liquidated, importers may protest the liquidation.”

CSMS 38840764 also included corrections to typographical errors to the Annex for the fifth round of Section 301 product exclusions, reported in 84 FR 25895. “Where 8404.40.4000 was included with the description to excluded product item (53) and 8504.40.0000 was included with the description to excluded product item (54), 8504.40.4000 has been inserting in lieu thereof. Also, included is the correction of excluded product description item (27) HTS from 8427.10.8090 to 8427.10.8070 and 8427.10.8095.”

For additional information concerning the Section 301 tariffs, please send an email to Deringer’s Compliance Department.