The Office of the United States Trade Representative is scheduled to issue a notice this week regarding the possible termination of Section 301 tariffs on Chinese products worth 370 billion dollars.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (UTR) is scheduled to issue a notice this week regarding the possible termination of Section 301 tariffs on Chinese products worth 370 billion dollars.

The notice opens up a range of possibilities regarding those sanctions, from continuation or modification to the termination of the tariffs.

To initiate this process, the USTR published a notice in the US government’s official journal, the Federal Register.

After the USTR issued its report on the outcome of its Section 301 investigation, it determined that imposing tariffs on US imports from China worth approximately 50 billion dollars was an appropriate response.

Consequently, on June 20, 2018, the USTR issued a list of products covered by the first round of tariffs (List 1), with an annual trade value of approximately 34 billion dollars.

The USTR then issued a second list of products (List 2), covering approximately 16 billion dollars in imports, on August 16, 2018.

Subsequently, starting May 10, 2019, the United States applied a 25% tariff to products imported from China with an annual value of nearly 200 billion dollars. That same basket of products had already been subject to a 10% tariff since September 24, 2018.

Then-President Donald Trump authorized the tariff increase under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974, one of the principal legal means by which that country enforces US rights under trade agreements and addresses “unfair” foreign barriers to US exports.

By way of a more detailed summary, the Section 301 sanctions against China have been applied in three stages. The first, in effect since July 6, 2018, consisted of setting a 25% tariff on 818 imported Chinese products with an annual value of 32.3 billion dollars.

Subsequently, the United States implemented the second stage, establishing a 25% tariff on 279 imported Chinese products, with an annual value of 13.7 billion dollars, in effect since August 23, 2018.

Finally, the third stage, in effect since September 24, 2018, was implemented first with a 10% tariff on 5,745 Chinese products imported by the United States worth 188.9 billion dollars, and then, as of May 10, with a 25% tariff on the same basket.

Other sanctions have also been applied, while exceptions have been made for certain companies.

Source: El Economista