On February 3, 2023, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it is extending for 75 days China Section 301 tariff exclusions for 81 medical products. The medical products were previously deemed as needed for the COVID-19 pandemic and granted exclusions from additional tariffs. The current exclusions were scheduled to expire on February 28, 2023; they will now be extended through May 15, 2023.
The 75-day deadline extension will allow the USTR to seek public comment on whether these particular exclusions should be extended beyond May 15, 2023. In its notice, the USTR stated that “the rates of infection of COVID in the United States continue to fluctuate. … Domestic production of certain products covered by these exclusions also has increased.” The USTR is seeking public comment on whether to extend any of the China Section 301 tariff exclusions for these 81 Chinese-origin COVID-19 products up to another six months. Public comments will be accepted from February 6 through March 7, 2023, and must be submitted through USTR’s online portal at https://comments.ustr.gov/ under Docket No. USTR-2023-0001.
For more details on past China Section 301 tariff exclusion extensions for COVID-19 products, see Update of November 28, 2022.