Polysilicon. Adobe Stock
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today announced the latest changes regarding the statutory review of the tariff actions in the Section 301 Investigation into the Laws, Policies, and Practices of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Regarding to technology transfer and intellectual property and Innovation.
The proposed changes announced in May 2024 were largely adopted, with several updates to strengthen actions to protect U.S. businesses and workers from China’s unfair trade practices after reviewing more than 1,100 comments from the public.
“Today’s final tariff increases will target the PRC’s harmful policies and practices that continue to impact American workers and businesses,” said Ambassador Katherine Tai. “These actions underscore the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to stand up for American workers and businesses in the face of unfair trade practices.”
The updates improve the effectiveness of the tariff measures in achieving the study’s objectives, while taking into account other measures that may be taken and the overall effects of the tariff measures on the U.S. economy.
These updates do not reflect any further consideration or modification of the investigation’s finding that, although the People’s Republic of China had amended a number of specific unfair measures, harmful practices of coerced technology transfer – particularly cyber theft and industrial espionage – have continued, and in some cases even worsened. The findings of the four-yearly evaluation can be found here.
The updates in today’s announcement include new timing and rates for tariffs on face masks, medical gloves, needles and syringes; an exclusion for enteral syringes; a proposal regarding the coverage of additional tariff lines for tungsten, wafers and polysilicon; an exclusion for ship-to-shore cranes ordered before May 14, 2024; an expansion of the scope of the machine exclusion process by five additional tariff lines; and modifying the coverage of proposed exclusions for solar energy production equipment.
Information about the revisions of changes is detailed in USTR’s Federal Register Notice, which is available here.
USTR expects to soon launch the machinery exclusion process as well as the comment period for proposed tariff rate changes on certain tungsten, wafer and polysilicon tariff lines.
The American solar producer group SEMA praised the actions.
“This is an important step in aligning U.S. industrial policy and the IRA’s objectives with U.S. trade policy. Both an increase in tariffs on Chinese exports of solar energy components and a temporary tariff reduction on certain solar equipment will boost US production and send an important signal to China. The provided and proposed tariff increases for solar components from China will, in the words of USTR: defend the United States against China’s policy-driven non-market overcapacity, which has led to extreme concentration of production in China and underpriced exports,” said Mike Carr. , executive director of the SEMA Coalition, in a press statement.
“The dollars saved by retroactively excluding equipment will help U.S. solar manufacturers overcome the challenges of market manipulation from China,” he continued. “American-owned companies were the first to build solar manufacturing plants in the U.S. and should be rewarded for taking that first step in restoring the entire supply chain.”