July 6, 2022, will mark the four-year anniversary of the institution of Section 301 tariffs against approximately $370 Billion in imports from China into the United States. In light of this anniversary, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) is commencing the first phase of its Four-Year Review Process, which will allow representatives of domestic industries which benefit from the trade actions to submit comments on whether or not the Section 301 tariffs should continue. In a notice to be published in the Federal Register on May 5, 2022 (unpublished version available here), USTR is requesting interested parties to address whether the imposition of the tariffs has been beneficial. Comments from domestic interested parties must be submitted in a 60-day window prior to the four-year anniversary. The first round of comments will be accepted between May 7, 2022, and July 5, 2022, for the List 1 tariffs which are set to expire on July 6, 2022. Comments related to the List 2 tariffs will be accepted between June 24, 2022, and August 22, 2022, as those tariffs are set to expire on August 23, 2022.
The notice indicates that if there are one or more requests from representatives of domestic industries in support of continuation of the tariffs, then USTR will proceed with a second phase of review for which they will publish subsequent notices and will allow for public comments from all interested parties.. If companies did not find that these tariffs were beneficial then the first round of tariffs, commonly referred to as List 1 will end effective July 6, 2022, and List 2 tariffs will end effective August 23, 2022.
Husch Blackwell’s International Trade and Supply Chain team will continue to monitor developments and provide additional updates as more information is forthcoming from USTR. For further information concerning this notice please contact members of Husch Blackwell’s international trade practice.