On February 20, 2020, the US Trade Representative (USTR) will publish in the Federal Register a notice that announces the USTR’s determination to grant certain exclusion requests from the $200 Bn action (List or Tranche 3) against Chinese products under Sec. 301., as specified in the Annex to the notice, and makes amendments to certain notes in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). As with prior List 3 exclusion notices, the product exclusions announced in the notice will apply as of September 24, 2018, the effective date of the $200 billion action, to August 7, 2020. The amendments announced in the notice are retroactive to the date the original exclusions were published. As set forth in the Annex, the exclusions are reflected in one 10-digit HTSUS subheading, which covers 6 requests, and 46 specially prepared product descriptions, which cover 61 exclusion requests.
In accordance with the June 24 Federal Register notice (84 FR 29576), the exclusions are available for any product that meets the description in the Annex, regardless of whether the importer filed an exclusion request. Further, the scope of each exclusion is governed by the scope of the product descriptions in the Annex, and not by the product descriptions found in any particular request for exclusion.
- Annex Subparagraph A(1) inserts a new heading 9903.88.40 into the HTSUS.
- Annex Subparagraph A(2) inserts a new US note 20(ss) to subchapter III of chapter 99 in numerical sequence and lists the granted exclusions.
- Paragraph A, subparagraphs (3)-(7) of the Annex contain conforming amendments to the HTSUS reflecting the modifications made by the Annex.
- Paragraph B of the Annex contains amendments reflecting technical corrections to the specially prepared product descriptions in certain notes to the HTSUS, specifically U.S. note 20(ll)(68), published at 84 FR 57803 (October 28, 2019), U.S. note 20(mm)(6), published at 84 FR 61674 (November 13, 2019), and U.S. note 20(nn)(30), published at 84 FR 65882 (November 29, 2019).
US Customs and Border Protection will issue instructions on entry guidance and implementation. USTR will continue to issue determinations on pending requests on a periodic basis. The Office of the USTR regularly updates the status of each pending request on the USTR Exclusions Portal at https://exclusions.ustr.gov/s/docket?docketNumber=USTR-2019-0005.
