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Trade and Industry Department The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Brand Hong Kong - Asia world city
MY COLOUR

Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref. :EIC 111/2/18
EIC 111/3
EIC 111/3/13
CR EIC 111/1/13/3

8 August 2018

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 759/2018

US : Finalized Second Tranche of Tariffs on US$16 billion of Products of Mainland China under Section 301 Investigation

Further to Commercial Information Circular No. 582/2018 of 19 June 2018 regarding the US' first tranche of tariffs of 25% on 818 tariff lines of Mainland goods which took effect on 6 July 2018, the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced on 7 August 2018 the finalized second tranche of tariff on imports of Mainland goods after the public comments and hearing process.  The second tranche contains 279 tariff lines worth approximately US$16 billion of imports, which will be subject to an additional duty of 25% with effect from 23 August 2018 (US time).  The USTR will shortly announce the process for interested persons to request for exclusion of particular products covered by a tariff line in the second tranche.

DETAILS

2.Following the USTR's Section 301 investigation findings released on 22 March 2018, the US President announced that the US would impose additional tariffs on certain Chinese imports and take other actions.

3.In this relation, the USTR released on 15 June 2018 two sets of US tariff lines of Mainland products worth about US$50 billion for an additional 25% tariff. The first set, which took effect on 6 July 2018, contains 818 tariff lines worth approximately US$34 billion. The USTR had also provided procedures for product exclusion requests from the additional tariffs under the first set. Please refer to CIC Nos. 582/2018, 659/2018 and 675/2018 dated 19 June 2018, 6 July 2018 and 9 July 2018 for details.

4.On 7 August 2018, the USTR released the finalized second set of tariff lines after the public comments and hearing process. The second set contains 279 tariff lines worth approximately US$16 billion of Mainland goods which will be subject to an additional duty of 25%. The US Customs and Border Protection will begin to collect the additional duties on the concerned products imported from Mainland China on 23 August 2018 (US time). A formal notice of the US$16 billion tariff action will be published shortly in the US Federal Register. As in the case of the first tranche of additional tariffs, the notice will announce the process for interested persons to request for exclusion of particular products covered by a tariff line subject to the additional duties.

5.For further details of the US' actions in response to the Section 301 investigation, please refer to the USTR press release: https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2018/august/ustr-finalizes-second-tranche

ENQUIRIES

6.For enquiries about the content of this circular, please contact the undersigned at 2398 5682.

Yours faithfully,

(Miss Ivy TAM)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry

Note: While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the above information, the Department cannot guarantee this to be so and will not be held liable for any reliance placed on the same.