On October 15, 2024, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it has opened a process for interested parties to request that certain machinery from China be temporarily excluded from Section 301 duties in the “Investigation of China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation”. Upon concluding its statutorily-mandated four-year review of the China Section 301 tariffs, President Joseph Biden directed the USTR to establish a product exclusion process for machinery from China used in domestic manufacturing and to prioritize exclusions for certain solar manufacturing equipment from China. See Thompson Hine Update of September 16, 2024. Consistent with the President’s direction, the current product exclusion process covers particular machinery from China used in domestic manufacturing classified within a subheading under Chapters 84 and 85 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). A list of eligible subheadings at Appendix E of the September 18, 2024 USTR Federal Register notice appears here.
As of October 15, 2024, the USTR has opened an electronic portal (https://comments.ustr.gov) for accepting exclusion requests under the docket, “Temporary Exclusions for Machinery Used in Domestic Manufacturing,” at USTR–2024–0020. The deadline for submitting exclusion requests is March 31, 2025. Each request must identify a particular product and provide both supporting data and a rationale for the requested exclusion. The USTR will evaluate each request on a case-by-case basis, considering the stated rationale for the exclusion, whether the exclusion would undermine the objective of the Section 301 investigation, and whether the request adequately defines the product.
Upon submission, other interested parties may file responses to individual exclusion requests within 30 days after the exclusion request is posted on the USTR’s online portal. Any replies to such responses are due the later of 15 days after the posting of a response, or 15 days after the closing of the 30-day response period. Any approved exclusion will be effective starting from the date of publication of the exclusion determination in the Federal Register and will extend through May 31, 2025. The USTR is accepting exclusion requests on a rolling basis and will periodically announce decisions on pending requests.
Further details on the exclusion process, the specific information to be entered on the exclusion request form, and the manner in which to respond to any exclusion requests are fully set forth in the USTR’s announcement.