Section 301 China Exclusions – Cautionary Warning
As most will recall, the U.S.A., has been involved in a very large trade war with China under the Section 301 provisions of our regulations, amounting in additional Tariffs, from 7.5% up to and including 25% (additional duty’s). A large number of “EXCLUSIONS” were issued throughout the years, some as resent as September of 2020 reduced these additional duties. We caution all importers and ask that you be aware that many, and most likely all, of those exclusions (which granted lower or no additional duties) are set to expire on December 31, 2020. Should these exclusions expire on December 31, 2020 it is our conjecture that the Section 301 duties could revert back to 25%. Again, this is only our opinion, but returning to 25% additional duties is exactly what happened in August of 2020 when certain other exclusions expired. The United States Trade Representatives (USTR) in September reinstated those exclusions through December 31, 2020 making them retroactive to August 7th, 2020, however, importers (through their broker) had to request Post Summary Corrections (PSC) or protest entries refund duty money’s paid in excess.
It will be very hard to predict what the United States Trade Representatives will be instructed to do in the remaining months of the current Presidents Administrative authority. Additionally, there is no way to know, read or guestimate as to what the President Elects’ opinion will be on the Section 301 China tariffs or even the level of priority our trade war with China will be assigned.
Please be aware that the current Section 301 Exclusion orders are earmarked with an end date of December, 21, 2020 and as such things could change drastically on January 1st, 2021.
