Senate Approves Amendment Re-opening China Section 301 Tariff Exclusion Process, Fate Unclear
On May 27, the Senate approved by a vote of 94-1 an amendment to pending anti-China legislation that would re-open and fix the TGA-supported China Section 301 tariff exclusion process. Under the previous tariff exclusion process, numerous petitions for travel goods exclusions were seemingly arbitrarily rejected. A reopening of the process could provide a new opportunity to exclude certain travel goods items from the 25% punitive tariff on U.S. travel goods imports from China. These tariffs are in addition to the normal 17-20% tariffs paid on U.S. travel goods imports from China, leading to an effective tariff rate of around 42-45%.