The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has published its procedures to consider requests for the exclusion of certain products from the imposition of an additional 25 percent ad valorem by notice in the Federal Register of July 11, 2018 (83 FR 32181).

After publishing various Federal Register notices, the close of a notice and comment period and after public hearings, the USTR and the interagency Section 301 Committee in June determined that the imposition of the additional 25 percent ad valorem should be imposed upon products from China classified in 818 subheadings of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). These 818 subheadings are set out in Annex A to the notice published at 83 FR 28710 on June 20, 2018. The additional duties took effect on July 6, 2018.

However, in response to comments during the public hearings and notice and comment period that specific products within a particular tariff subheading only were available from China, and that the imposition of additional duties on the specific products "would cause severe economic harm to a U.S. interest, and that the specific products were not strategically important or related to the 'Made in China 2025' program," the USTR determined to establish a process by which U.S. interested parties may request that particular products classified within a covered HTSUS subheading be excluded from the additional duties.

The notice published on July 11, 2018, addresses those concerns and sets forth the specific procedure and criteria to be followed regarding requests for product exclusions.

In that regard, requests for exclusion must be received by October 9, 2018. Responses must be received no later than 14 days after the request for exclusion is posted in Docket Number USTR-2018-0025.

Any replies to responses are due seven days after the close of the 14 day response period.

Electronic responses are preferred through the Federal Rulemaking Portal.

Procedures to follow and topics to be covered regarding all submissions are set forth in Section B of the notice of July 11. It is urged by USTR that parties address the topics outlined in Section B. Please refer to the Federal Register notice of July 11 for details.

Finally, USTR advises that submissions will be posted in the Docket for public inspection under Docket Number USTR-2018-0025.

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