President Trump on July 10, 2018 fired another salvo in the trade war with China when he proposed the imposition of a 10% tariff on another $200 billion of Chinese goods. This proposal is a counterattack on China’s retaliatory action to impose 25% duties on $34 billion of U.S. exports to China.
The new list includes 6,031 tariff subheadings covering everything from food products, floor panels, to tires and textiles. These will undergo further review similar to the public notice, comments and hearing which applied to the original round of Section 301 tariffs this past spring. Once the review process is complete, the USTR will issue a final determination as to which, if any, of these products will also be subject to the 10% tariff.
The list of the tariff subheadings subject to the proposed additional 10% tariff is available here.
As in the prior round, the USTR will be accepting written comments about the proposed tariff which are due on August 17. There will also be a public hearing on August 20-23, and the request to participate is due by July 27, 2018. Post-hearing rebuttal comments are due August 30, 2018.
