On September 13, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a Federal Register notice detailing final modifications to Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports following its statutorily mandated four-year review.
Key points:
- New tariffs will take effect on September 27 for increases scheduled in 2024. Increases for 2025 and 2026 will apply from January 1 of each respective year.
- Tariff increases target strategic sectors, including electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors, solar cells and medical products.
- Changes from the May 2024 proposal include:
- Increased tariffs on facemasks, medical gloves and syringes/needles
- Exclusion for enteral syringes through January 1, 2026
- Exclusion process for ship-to-shore cranes ordered before May 14
- An exclusion process for certain machinery used in domestic manufacturing will be launched soon.
- Fourteen temporary exclusions for solar manufacturing equipment were approved, effective retroactively to January 1 through May 31, 2025.
The final list of affected products and tariff rates can be found in Annex A of the Federal Register notice. Importers should review the final product list carefully to determine impacts on their supply chains and consider strategies to mitigate increased costs.
