The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has introduced an exclusion process that allows companies to exempt their products from the new tariffs imposed last Friday on $34 billion worth of Chinese exports.
The USTR stated that this process will address situations where products are impacted by tariffs due to their inclusion in the targeted product categories.
The USTR indicated that a product may be excluded if the tariffs cause "severe economic harm" to the company, the product is not available outside of China, and it is not "strategically important or related to Chinese industrial programs."
The USTR stated that companies have 90 days to submit applications, with the application period closing on October 9. Opponents of the exclusions have two weeks to comment on the applications. All granted exclusions will be valid for one year, retroactive to July 6, 2018.
