This week the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released the following list of 1,300 Chinese products which could be subjected to U.S. tariffs in response to ongoing Chinese infringement of U.S. intellectual property.

The White House intends to place around $50 billion worth of duties on products entering the U.S. market. Tariff rates could be as high as 25 percent per product. Agricultural and construction equipment is included on the proposed list.

AEM strongly encourages all member companies bringing equipment from China into the U.S. to review the proposed list. By cross-checking a product's eight-digit code in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States with the USTR’s proposed list, it can be determined if a company could be economically impacted. The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States can be found here.

USTR is accepting comments on the proposed tariffs, and a public hearing will be held on May 15 at the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. Individuals wishing to provide comment or appear at the hearing in opposition to the tariffs should submit their information via the Federal eRulemaking Portal, which can be found at https://www.regulations.gov/. The docket number is USTR-2018-005. For alternatives to on-line submissions, please contact USTR’s Sandy McKinzy at 202-395-9483.

AEM continues to work with the Trump administration and Congress to avoid imposing tariffs on construction and agriculture equipment, which will not only hurt the 1.3 million jobs the industry supports, but also America’s agriculture sector.

For additional information, please contact AEM Director of International and Regulatory Affairs Alex Russ (aruss@aem.org, tel: 202-898-9006).

Subscribe to the AEM Industry Advisor.