US reinstates 352 product exclusions from tariffs on Chinese imports

The US Trade Representative’s office said on Wednesday that it reinstated 352 expired product exclusions from US “Section 301” tariffs on Chinese imports, well short of the 549 exclusions it was previously considering.

The reinstated product exclusions will be effective retroactively from October 12 2021, and extend through December 31 2022, USTR said. They cover a wide range of the initially estimated $370bn worth of Chinese imports that former president Donald Trump hit with punitive tariffs of 7.5% to 25%.

The list released by USTR includes industrial components such as pumps and electric motors, certain car parts and chemicals, backpacks, bicycles, vacuum cleaners and other consumer goods.

A Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson said on Thursday the US decision was beneficial to normalising the trade flow of those products, and hoped bilateral trade relations would get back on a normal track.

“Amid inflation spikes and challenges to the global economic recovery, we hope the US could scrap all tariffs on Chinese products as soon as possible for the fundamental interests of consumers and producers in China and the US,” spokesperson Shu Jueting told reporters.

The Trump administration initially granted more than 2,200 exclusions to the tariffs to provide relief to certain industries and retailers. Most were allowed to expire, but 549 were extended for a year, and these expired at the end of 2020.

US trade representative Katherine Tai last October launched a review of whether to reinstate those 549 exclusions as part of her strategy to confront China on its trade practices.

A series of virtual meetings with her Chinese counterparts since then yielded little improvement in China’s performance under Trump’s Phase 1 trade agreement with Beijing.

Reuters