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Trade and Industry Department The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
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US "Section 301 Investigation" Tariff Measures

Following the US Trade Representative'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 (CIC No. 293/2018).

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 (hereafter "US$50 billion list"). The first set, which took effect on 6 July 2018, contains 818 tariff lines worth approximately US$34 billion (CIC No. 582/2018, CIC No. 659/2018 and CIC No. 787/2018). The USTR had also provided procedures for product exclusion requests from the additional tariffs under the first set (CIC No. 675/2018). The USTR announced on 28 December 2018 the first batch of products to be excluded from the additional tariffs of 25% on Mainland products worth approximately US$34 billion. These products exclusions are retroactive to 6 July 2018, and remain in place until 27 December 2019 (CIC No. 1163/2018 and CIC No. 126/2019). On 20 March 2019, the USTR announced the second batch of products to be excluded from the additional tariffs, which are retroactive to 6 July 2018, and remain in place for one year (CIC No. 209/2019). The USTR further announced on 18 April 2019 the third batch of products to be excluded, which are retroactive to 6 July 2018, and remain in place until 17 April 2020 (CIC No. 300/2019). The USTR issued on 14 May 2019 the fourth batch of products to be excluded from the additional tariffs, which are retroactive to 6 July 2018, and remain in place until 13 May 2020 (CIC No. 372/2019). On 4 June 2019, the USTR announced the fifth batch of products to be excluded from the additional tariffs which are retroactive to 6 July 2018, and remain in place until 3 June 2020 (CIC No. 440/2019). Subsequently, on 9 July 2019, the USTR announced the sixth batch of products to be excluded from the additional tariffs which are retroactive to 6 July 2018, and remain in place until 8 July 2020 (CIC No. 516/2019). For further development on products to be excluded from the additional tariffs, please refer to the summary table.

On 16 June 2018, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice concerning additional tariffs on US$50 billion of imported goods originating from the US. The first batch of 545 items worth about US$34 billion including agricultural products, vehicles and aquatic products originating from the US were imposed with additional tariffs of 25% effective from 6 July 2018 (CIC No. 583/2018).

The USTR further announced on 10 July 2018 to take further actions by proposing an additional 10% tariff on 6,031 tariff lines of Mainland products worth approximately US$200 billion (hereafter "US$200 billion list"). The proposed tariff will undergo public comments and hearing process (CIC No. 681/2018).

On 1 August 2018, the USTR announced that it had been directed by the US President to consider increasing the proposed level of the additional tariff on the US$200 billion list from 10% to 25% (CIC No. 735/2018). In light of the possible increase of the additional tariff rate to 25% , the public comment periods had been extended (CIC No. 757/2018).

On 3 August 2018, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice concerning additional tariffs on some imported goods (second batch) originating from the US. Additional tariffs of 5% , 10% , 20% and 25% will be imposed respectively on 5,207 imported goods worth about US$60 billion originating from the US. The implementation date will be announced later (CIC No. 743/2018).

On 7 August 2018, the USTR released the finalized second set of tariff lines under the US$50 billion list 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 begins to collect the additional duties on the concerned products imported from Mainland China on 23 August 2018 (US time) (CIC No. 759/2018 and CIC No. 787/2018). The USTR had also provided procedures for product exclusion requests from the additional tariffs under the second set (CIC No. 859/2018).

On 8 August 2018, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice concerning additional tariffs on 333 items worth about US$16 billion of imported goods originating from the US, which takes effect on 23 August 2018 (CIC No. 768/2018).

On 17 September 2018, the USTR released the finalized US$200 billion list of Mainland imports (containing 5,745 full or partial lines of the original 6,031 tariff lines that were on a proposed list of Mainland imports announced on 10 July 2018) that will be subject to additional tariffs. In accordance with the direction of the US President, the additional tariffs are effective starting 24 September 2018 (US time), and initially are in the amount of 10% (CIC No. 858/2018, CIC No. 882/2018 and CIC No. 888/2018). On 1 December 2018, the US announced to postpone the tariff increase from 10% to 25% , which was originally set to take effect on 1 January 2019 (CIC No.1093/2018). The US had further delayed the tariff increase since then (CIC No. 159/2019). Both the US and the Mainland continued to hold several rounds of trade talks. On 5 May 2019, the US announced to increase the additional tariffs (from 10% to 25%) with respect to the Mainland imports worth approximately US$200 billion effective on 10 May 2019 (CIC No. 344/2019, CIC No. 357/2019 and CIC No. 358/2019). On 31 May 2019, the USTR intended to extend the original deadline of 1 June 2019 to 15 June 2019 for certain Mainland products that were exported to the US prior to 10 May 2019 for exemption from the additional tariff increase from 10% to 25% (CIC No. 426/2019).

On 18 September 2018, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice imposing additional tariffs of 5% (1,636 tariff lines) and 10% (3,571 tariff lines) on about US$60 billion of imported goods originating from the US effective 24 September 2018 (CIC No. 860/2018).

On 14 December 2018, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice suspending the additional tariffs on 211 tariff lines of vehicles and parts originating from the US as earlier included in the three tariff lists of the Mainland against US products for three months (from 1 January 2019 to 31 March 2019) (CIC No. 1118/2018). On 31 March 2019, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China continued the suspension from 1 April 2019 until further notice (CIC No. 251/2019).

On 13 May 2019, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice to, with effect from 1 June 2019, increase the additional tariffs already implemented by the Mainland on 24 September 2018 on US$60 billion worth of US goods. Specifically, those items originally subject to an additional 10% tariffs will be subject to 25% (2,493 tariff lines) or 20% (1,078 tariff lines) tariffs, while items originally facing 5% additional tariffs will either be subject to 10% tariffs (974 tariff lines) or the same rate of 5% (595 tariff lines)(CIC No. 360/2019). 67 tariff lines related to vehicles and parts continued to be suspended from the additional tariff of 5% as covered by the temporary suspension announced on 31 March 2019.

Relatedly, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China also announced on 13 May 2019 a pilot product exclusion request arrangement for the Mainland tariff measures on the US goods (CIC No. 359/2019).

On 1 August 2019, the US President said the US would impose an additional 10% tariff on the remaining Mainland products worth approximately US$300 billion (i.e. List 4) under the Section 301 investigation with effect from 1 September 2019 (CIC No. 582/2019). On 13 August 2019, the USTR announced two finalized lists, namely List 4A (effective 1 September 2019) and List 4B (effective 15 December 2019) for the 10% additional tariffs in List 4 (CIC No. 614/2019).

On 23 August 2019, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice to increase additional tariffs on 5,078 tariff lines worth about US$75 billion of some imported goods (Third Batch) originating from the US, which will be implemented respectively since 12:01 on 1 September 2019 (involving 916 tariff lines at 10%; and 801 tariff lines at 5%), and 12:01 on 15 December 2019 (involving 912 tariff lines at 10%; and 2,449 tariff lines at 5%) (CIC no. 643/2019).

Besides, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice on 23 August 2019 to resume the suspended additional tariffs on vehicles and parts originating from the US, which will be implemented since 12:01 on 15 December 2019 (involving 144 tariff lines at 25%; and 67 tariff lines at 5%) (CIC No. 644/2019).

On 23 August 2019, the USTR announced to increase the additional tariff rates on approximately US$550 billion worth of Mainland products (Lists 1 to 4) by five more percent. Specifically, for the US$250 billion worth of Mainland products (i.e. Lists 1, 2 and 3), the USTR will increase the tariff rate from 25% to 30%, effective 1 October 2019 following a notice and comment period (CIC no. 665/2019). For the US$300 billion worth of Mainland products (i.e. Lists 4A and 4B), the tariff rate will increase from 10% to 15%, effective on the original scheduled dates (i.e. 1 September 2019 and 15 December 2019) (CIC No. 642/2019).

On 11 September 2019, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice concerning the first exclusion from the first batch of additional tariffs on imported goods originating from the US. Two lists of products (covering respectively 12 and 4 tariff lines) are excluded from 17 September 2019 to 16 September 2020 (1 year) (CIC No. 686/2019). On the same day, the US President said that the US would delay the implementation date from 1 October 2019 to 15 October 2019 for its planned tariff increase (from 25% to 30%) on Mainland products worth about US$250 billion (CIC no. 688/2019). Subsequently, on 11 October 2019, the US President said that the US would suspend the tariff increase from 25% to 30% originally scheduled for 15 October 2019 (CIC no. 743/2019).

On 13 December 2019, the USTR announced that the US would suspend indefinitely the imposition of 15% additional tariffs on Mainland products under List 4B originally scheduled to take effect on 15 December 2019, and that the US will also issue a notice reducing the additional tariffs from 15% to 7.5% on Mainland products under List 4A (CIC No. 902/2019). Subsequently, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice concerning tentatively not implementing additional tariff measures on some imported goods originated from the US originally to be implemented on 15 December 2019 (CIC No. 903/2019).

On 19 December 2019, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice concerning the second exclusion from the first batch of additional tariffs on imported goods originating from the US. Some products are excluded from additional tariffs from 26 December 2019 to 25 December 2020 (1 year) (CIC No. 916/2019).

On 15 January 2020, the US and China signed the Phase One trade agreement. The USTR announced that the additional tariffs on Mainland products under List 4A will be reduced from 15% to 7.5%, effective on 14 February 2020 (CIC No. 62/2020).

On 6 February 2020, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China issued a notice concerning adjusting additional tariff measures on some imported goods (Third Batch) originated from the US with effect from 13:01 on 14 February 2020 (CIC No. 104/2020).

Lists of products subject to additional tariffs of the US and the Mainland