The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a Notice announcing the continuing extension of Section 301 tariff exclusions for 81 medical products that were scheduled to expire on May 15, 2023. These extensions come after a 75-day extension in February 2023 when USTR sought public comment on whether further exclusions were necessary since “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.” See Update of February 3, 2023. The Notice states that the USTR is extending the tariff exclusions for 77 products through September 30, 2023. Exclusions for four medical products will expire on May 31, 2023.
After evaluating the public comments and conferring with the interagency Section 301 Committee and the White House COVID Response Team, the USTR determined that extending the 77 exclusions “is not likely to adversely harm domestic manufacturing of products covered by the exclusions, and extending them through September 30, 2023 will allow the U.S. Trade Representative to consider and align, as appropriate, the exclusions with the results of the statutory 4-year review.” For more information on the statutory review process, see Updates of September 6, 2022 and May 3, 2022.