On February 28th, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued an update to the January 27th message on trade providing guidance on the new Section 301 modifications, which were made to certain classifications within the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS).
The update stated the new HTS will maintain the duty treatment with respect to actions pursuant to section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 under the appropriate US Note provided in the statement. December 23, 2021, the White House issued a Presidential Proclamation 10326, making modifications to the HTS pursuant to 19 USC 3005(a), and on February 22, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) made a retroactive technical modification, removing HTS 2931.49.00 from Section 301 duties, effective January 27.
CBP also updated Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) to add HTS 2202.99.91 to the tariff numbers that are subject to the Section 301 duties as provided under HTS 9903.88.03, also effective January 27. On February 22 at 7 AM the functionality for the acceptance of the technical modifications in the ACE became available.
This means that there are corrective actions to be taken. If importers entered Chinese goods under HTS 2931.49.00 and paid Section 301 duties as of January 27th, then they should file a Post Summary Corrections (PSCs) and correct the entry summary line to remove the HTS 9903.88.03 to obtain refunds of duties paid. If importers who entered Chinese goods under HTS 2202.99.91 didn’t pay additional Section 301 duties as of January 27th, then they should file PSCs to correct their entries by adding HTS 9903.88.03 and properly pay Section 301 duties.
Here at Sobel, our responsibility is to stay current on these tariff changes to play our role as a qualified individuals for importers. Given the importance of China and the high volume of freight manufactured and exported there, we know that more likely than not your supply chain is affected by the ongoing Section 301 trade remedy duties. Please contact your Sobel representative today if you have any questions.
