Article by: Rick Walker, Vice President, TradeInsights, LCB, CCS

Further to the below article posted on May 5, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has announced the start of a process whereby interested parties can comment on whether and how to continue the Section 301 duties. In order to accept comments, the USTR will open the USTR portal beginning on November 15 and continuing through January 17, 2023. A copy of the Federal Register Notice announcing the portal can be found here. The USTR portal which will be available on November 15th can be accessed here. Once accessing the portal, anyone wishing to make a comment will find a preview list of questions for them to prepare responses to. The USTR is providing this preview of questions so that interested parties can begin to formulate their responses and offer their comments about the harm the Section 301 actions have imposed on their businesses and the U.S. economy overall. This opportunity may be of special interest for importers who initially requested product exclusions or the subsequent temporary exclusion processes.

Please contact your V. Alexander account team, or you may also contact our Trade Compliance team at tradeinsights@valexander.com with any questions, and you can always follow us on our website www.valexander.com for updates on this and other topics.

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On May 3, 2022, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) issued a Press Release and Federal Register Notice initiating a statutorily mandated four year review of the Section 301 China tariffs. The announcement initiates a timeline for the U.S. domestic industry to provide comments for supporting the continuation of the China Section 301 duties.

It is important to note that this mandated review is not related to the current case in front of the Court of International Trade contesting the imposition of the third and fourth round of tariffs by the USTR.

The USTR four year review will be conducted in two phases: 1) accepting input from companies that support continuing the Section 301 tariffs; 2) a separate, second phase to accept input from those who want the tariffs to end. The USTR will later announce the time frames and process for input from companies opposing the Section 301 Tariffs. When this is announced we will issue an update accordingly.

In the announcement, the USTR stated “USTR is providing notice to representatives of domestic industries that benefit from the tariff actions through letters to interested parties that previously submitted comments in support of the tariff actions and through the issuance of a Federal Register notice. Requests for continuation must be submitted prior to the four-year anniversary of the action, which is July 6, 2022, for the first action in the investigation. If one or more requests for continuation are submitted, USTR will publish an additional notice after July 6 announcing the continuation of the tariff action and will proceed with a review of the tariffs. The review will include an opportunity for all interested persons to provide comments.

If you are interested in submitting a request, please visit the USTR Comment Portal.

Please contact your V. Alexander account team, or you may also contact our Trade Compliance team at tradeinsights@valexander.com with any questions.