Section 301 Tariff Hikes Delayed; Will Take Effect Two Weeks After Future Announcement

Higher or new Section 301 tariffs on lithium-ion batteries for EVs, lead-acid battery parts, golf-cart like EVs, electric cars, vans and buses, plug-in hybrids, ship-to-shore cranes, solar cells, solar panels, syringes, needles, three categories of disposable masks, 26 critical minerals, more than 100 HTS codes covering iron and steel products, and 31 aluminum HTS codes, all on imports from China, will not go up on Aug. 1, as originally announced two months ago (see 2405220072).

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it expects the final determination on tariff changes to come sometime in August. When that announcement is made, the tariffs that are changing this year "will take effect approximately two weeks after it makes the final determination public."

The proposed changes to the Section 301 tariffs, which also included some tariff hikes Jan. 1, 2025 and Jan. 1, 2026, drew more than 1,100 comments, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said July 30 that officials had not had time to respond to all the comments.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's May Federal Register notice asked for comments specifically on:

• the effectiveness of the proposed modification in counteracting or getting China to eliminate its technology transfer and abusive intellectual property practices
• the economic effects of the proposal
• the scope of the product description that covers ship-to-shore cranes under subheading 8426.19.00
• whether tariff rates on face masks, medical gloves, and syringes and needles, should be higher than the 25% or 50% rates
• with respect to face masks, whether additional statistical reporting codes under tariff subheading 6307.90.98 should be included
• whether the tariff subheadings listed are the right ones to comply with the presidential memo.

The scope of the imports covered by the higher tariffs is about $18 billion annually, the administration said.