Update: USTR splits effective dates for the 4th tranche of Section 301 duties.

As we reported in the beginning of the month, when President Trump tweeted that a 4th tranche of 301 duties would be coming on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese imports, the USTR announced yesterday that only part of the list would be effective September 1, 2019. The second half will not go into effect until December 15, 2019 as concerns for their impact on the holiday shopping season and a global recession, pushed back most consumer goods, including electronics, toys, apparel, and footwear.

Further information released yesterday advised that the effective date for the new tariffs will be on September 1, 2019 which means that cargo on the sea will likely not arrive before the date will be subject to the 10% duties but some air cargo will make it in before hand. Importers had been waiting eagerly to learn whether cargo would need to arrive by September 1st or depart from China by September 1st to be included. Though we’re received information regarding the dates and amounts the USTR has not yet detailed any exclusionary processes for these tariffs, so we cannot expressly confirm that there will be a process for this list. There have been exclusion processes for the previous lists, so while we expect there to be one for list 4, we can not confirm that at this time.

We at Nelson International understand how deeply these tariffs impact our flients and we’re working diligently to bring the most current information to our readers with every breaking story. If you have cargo on the sea or are planning your supply chain throughout the fourth quarter, we encourage you to reach out to your Nelson representative to discuss the new duties that will be applied to your cargo. We’ll be keeping these stories updates as information becomes available and hope to have the dates for the exclusion processes available soon, if it will happen. We also encourage clients to confirm they have enough of a bond to cover the new duties and would be happy to work with you to ensure that no disruptions will take place.

LIST 4A – Effective September 1, 2019

LIST 4B – Effective December 15, 2019