The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, shortly after the administration chose to keep and expand the Section 301 tariffs (see 2405220072), grappled with what it should recommend to Congress on how to use trade policy to counteract trade distortions from China's communist-run economy.
Solar manufacturing equipment imported from China will automatically be exempt from 301 tariffs, but a notice published by the Office of U.S. Trade Representative is unclear on when those tariffs will be lifted. A spokesperson said they will be effective on the day the notice is published in the Federal Register.
Five products identified by the Biden administration as deserving 100% Section 301 tariffs for strategic reasons -- electric vans, buses, low-speed golf-cart like EVs, electric cars, and plug-in hybrids -- will see higher rates on Aug. 1.
The top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked the U.S. trade representative to upgrade its trade negotiations with Kenya so that it's working toward a goal of a comprehensive trade agreement.
A Federal Register notice that will be made public this week will announce decisions on which of the current Section 301 tariff exclusions can continue, according to Brian Janovitz, chief counsel for China trade enforcement in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Many importers who were hit with Section 301 tariffs six years ago expected they would be rolled back in 18 months or two or three years, said Nicole Bivens Collinson, director of Sandler Travis's international trade and government relations practice. Then, once that didn't happen, they thought they'd see what happened in the Biden administration.
Full details about the Section 301 exclusion process will be revealed next week, but a White House memo said that importers of machinery in chapters 84 and 85 will need to submit requests for exclusions, even though the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative already has compiled a list of HTS codes it sees as appropriate targets for exclusions. The memo said there will be a way to register opposition to those requests, as well. The memo said the USTR "shall prioritize, in particular, exclusions for certain solar manufacturing equipment."
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will hold a virtual listening session about negotiations in the U.S.-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership on May 16 at 10 a.m. Stakeholders who would like to attend should email MBX.USTR.IAPE@USTR.eop.gov by 6 p.m. May 15.
Section 301 China tariff changes outlined by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative May 14 will take effect approximately 90 days after a request for comments that will be issued next week. That includes a 100% tariff on Chinese-origin electric vehicles, as well as the jump to 25% Section 301 tariffs on steel and aluminum products, ship to shore cranes, lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries, battery parts for non-lithium-ion batteries, "some critical minerals" and face masks, and a bump to 50% tariffs on solar cells, syringes and needles, the White House said in a fact sheet.
The administration will hike tariffs this year on steel and aluminum, solar cells (including in modules), ship to shore cranes, electric vehicles, lithium-ion EV batteries, battery parts, some critical minerals, certain respirators and face masks, syringes and needles, and will hike tariffs on other Chinese imports next year and in 2026. A White House fact sheet on the tariffs doesn't include more specific dates.