The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced the process for requesting extensions for certain approved China Section 301 List 3 product exclusions set to expire on August 7, 2020.  These List 3 product exclusions have been granted in eleven (11) different rounds between August 7, 2019 and March 26, 2020 and cover twenty-four (24) ten-digit HTS classifications and six hundred forty (640) product specific descriptions.  For a comprehensive spreadsheet of the List 3 (and List 1 and 2) product exclusions, contact Ryan Thornton for our proprietary China Section 301 product exclusion spreadsheet.  The latest 12th round of List 3 product exclusions granted on April 24, 2020 is not included.  Unlike List 1 and List 2 product exclusions that have been granted for one year from publication date, all List 3 product exclusions are set to expire on a single date, August 7, 2020. 

Interested parties may submit List 3 product exclusion extension requests from May 1, 2020 to June 8, 2020.  Clients using these List 3 product exclusions are encouraged to file extension requests by June 8 to preserve the exclusions.   Whether or not a company requested a product exclusion, China Section 301 product exclusions are available for all merchandise meeting the description in the approved product exclusion.  Therefore, a company may request extension of a product exclusion even if it did not request the initial exclusion.  Companies and other interested parties may file comments supporting or opposing extending an exclusion.  The USTR indicates that the “focus of the evaluation will be whether, despite the first imposition of these additional duties in September 2018, the particular product remains available only from China.”  Required information includes whether merchandise is available in the U.S., the quantity of merchandise sourced from China or domestic sources, and the economic harm to U.S. companies from these increased duties.

The timing of this List 3 product exclusion extension process raises some issues.  There are almost one thousand three hundred (1,300) List 3 product exclusion requests that are still pending before the USTR.  Further, as the 11th round of List 3 product exclusions was only approved on March 26, 2020, requests for extensions of those product exclusions must be immediately requested to preserve the product exclusions.

Please contact Marshall Miller, Brian Murphy, Sean Murray, or Ryan Thornton with questions or for assistance in filing exclusion extension requests.