The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has granted certain Section 301 tariff exclusions on some seafood items, giving the products another three months to avoid a higher 25 percent tariff rate.
The Section 301 tariffs stem from the first term of U.S. President Donald Trump, who first hit Chinese products with a 10 percent tariff in 2018. That move started Trump’s first trade war with China, which resulted in 25 percent tariffs being placed on a wide array of goods from China related to the Section 301 Investigation of China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden then kept many of the policies regarding the Section 301 investigation – including many of the tariff exclusions that were established on a range of items. Those exclusions have undergone regular extensions, with the most recent extension in May 2024 granting reprieves to an array of seafood products for one year. Another extension, in September, touched on certain solar manufacturing equipment.
On 31 May – the final date that all of those tariff extensions would have applied – the USTR announced it plans to extend those same extensions – this time for just three months.
“Based on continued consideration of the comments received in response to the December 29 notice and the comments received in the four-year review, the U.S. Trade Representative has determined that a three-month extension of the 164 exclusions extended in May 2024 and the 14 exclusions granted in September 2024 is appropriate,” the USTR said in a posting on the Federal Register. “The USTR’s decision to extend these exclusions takes into account public comments previously provided, previous advice of the advisory committees, and the interagency Section 301 Committee.”
Those exclusions apply to the following products through 31 August 2025:
- Alaskan sole (yellowfin, rock, or flathead) frozen in blocks, with a net weight of more than 4.5 kilograms;
- King crab meat, frozen in blocks and weighing at least 1 kilogram but not more than 1.2 kilograms, in airtight containers;
- Snow crab meat (C. opilio), frozen in blocks, in airtight containers, and with a net weight of no more than 1.2 kilograms;
- Dungeness crab meat, frozen in blocks in airtight containers, with a weight of no more than 1.2 kilograms; and
- Any crab meat other than king, snow, Dungeness, or swimming crabs, frozen in blocks in airtight containers weighing no more than 1.5 kilograms.
Other products were once again listed under Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes, such as:
- Haddock, under code 0304.72.5000;
- Sole, under codes 0304.83.1015 and 0304.83.5015 – both skinned and in frozen blocks weighing over 4.5 kilograms imported to be minced or cut into pieces of uniform weights and dimensions;
- Flounder, under codes 0304.83.1020 and 0304.83.5020 – skinned and in frozen blocks weighing over 4.5 kilograms imported to be minced or cut into pieces of uniform weights and dimensions; and
- Flatfish fillets, frozen, “other,” under 0304.83.5090.
The inclusion of haddock, soul, flounder, and flatfish was originally designed to give companies time to shift sourcing, according to the USTR’s prior posting.
“The USTR has found that extending these exclusions will support efforts to shift sourcing out of China or provide additional time where, despite efforts to source products from alternative sources, availability of the product outside of China remains limited,” the USTR said in 2024.
The USTR said that these latest extensions may be continued or modified “as appropriate” going forward.
