Commercial Information Circulars

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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

11 November 2021
(Last updated on 7 February 2022)

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 782/2021

US : Section 301 Tariffs on Mainland Products - Extension of Transition Period until 30 November 2021 and Further Extension of 81 Medical-care Products from Additional Tariffs until 31 May 2022 to Address COVID-19 Pandemic

Further to Commercial Information Circular (CIC) no. 676/2021 of 29 September 2021, the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced on 9 November 2021 to extend the transition period for 99 excluded medical-care products from 14 November 2021 to 30 November 2021, and to further extend the exclusions for 81 of these 99 medical-care products until 31 May 2022, in order to address the COVID-19 Pandemic. The official Federal Register (FR) notice was issued on 16 November 2021.

DETAILS

2.Since July 2018, the US has imposed additional tariffs on Mainland products worth approximately US$370 billion under the Section 301 investigation in four tranches (Lists 1-3: 25% ; List 4A: 7.5%). The USTR also initiated exclusion processes for stakeholders to submit requests for the exclusion of specific products from the additional tariffs. Subsequently, 99 items of medical-care products to address the COVID-19 pandemic have been excluded from the additional tariffs until 30 September 2021 and extended to 14 November 2021. For details, please refer to CIC Nos. 915/2020, 619/2021 and 676/2021 of 24 December 2020, 30 August 2021 and 29 September 2021 respectively.

3.On 9 November 2021, the USTR announced to extend the transition period for 99 excluded medical-care products from 14 November 2021 to 30 November 2021. Besides, the USTR also further extended the exclusions for 81 of these 99 medical-care products until 31 May 2022, in order to address the COVID-19 Pandemic.

4.For further details, please refer to the relevant notices:

• FR notice on extension of transition period and further extension (16 November 2021):
  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-11-16/pdf/2021-24918.pdf
• USTR's technical amendment (7 December 2021 and 28 January 2022):
  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-12-07/pdf/2021-26482.pdf
  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2022-01-28/pdf/2022-01732.pdf

ENQUIRIES

5.For enquiries concerning the content of this circular, please contact Miss K Y HO at telephone number 2398 5405.

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.