On May 24, 2024, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it was further extending certain product exclusions in the Section 301 Investigation of China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation. The current 429 product-specific exclusions were scheduled to expire on May 31, 2024. However, under the forthcoming Federal Register notice, the USTR announced that only 164 product exclusions will be extended while the rest will expire as of June 14, 2024.
The 164 product exclusions that have been granted extensions will not expire until May 31, 2025. In allowing these extensions, the USTR announced that it “has found that extending these exclusions will support efforts to shift sourcing out of China, or provide additional time where, despite efforts to source products from alternative sources, availability of the product outside of China remains limited.” The exclusions that are extended are identified in Annex C to the notice.
For those product exclusions that were not granted any extension, the USTR noted that 102 of them received no public comments requesting an extension. For the remaining exclusions expiring on June 14, the USTR stated that the “public comments do not demonstrate that further extending the exclusion would aid efforts to shift sourcing out of China in the near term or do not demonstrate that products covered by the exclusion are unavailable outside of China.” It appears that the USTR specifically declined to extend product exclusions in instances where U.S. importers indicated no plans or efforts to shift sourcing outside of China, or where vague explanations were offered on seeking alternative sourcing. The exclusions that will expire are identified in Annex D to the notice. To provide a transition period for these expiring exclusions, the USTR has extended their expiration date from May 31, 2024, until June 14, 2024.