On Friday June 15th, 2018, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that the U.S. will follow through with 25 percent tariffs on approximately $50 billion worth of goods from China in 2018 import value (read announcement here).

The list of goods covered by the order includes mainly industrially significant technology products spread across 1,102 U.S. tariff lines.  The list of specific tariff numbers can be found here and, as announced, CBP will begin collecting these additional duties beginning July 6th.

Additionally, there is a second set of HTS numbers which have been identified by the interagency Section 301 Committee as benefiting from Chinese industrial policies.  These include the “Made in China 2025” industrial policy, and the set covers about $16 billion worth of imports from China. The second set of products will undergo a public notice and comment process, including a public hearing, after which USTR will issue a final determination on the products from the list that would be subject to the duties, the agency said.  Crowell Morning Trade Law wrote a good overview on this, here.

The USTR will “soon provide an opportunity” for the public to request exclusion of “particular products” from the duties to be imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, and will issue a notice in the Federal Register with details on this process within the next few weeks, USTR said.