Recently, the United States imposed a 25% tariff on thousands of products from China, but permitted U.S. companies to request an exclusion from paying tariffs. In this article, Omar Nashashibi, founding partner of The Franklin Partnership, LLC, and a resource of Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA), explains the latest news regarding the exclusion and its relevance to structural components for industrial furnaces.
The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has extended an exclusion for importers from paying a 25% tariff on industrial furnace components from China. The exclusion to the China Section 301 tariffs for structural components for industrial furnaces was extended in the Federal Register notice published on July 9, 2020 (85 FR 41267). The exclusion to the 25% tariffs, originally granted in July 2019 and set to expire on June 9, 2020, is now extended through December 31, 2020. The extension of the exclusion to industrial furnace components is one of twelve announced by USTR. Nearly 100 other products, including furnace casings, will see their tariff exclusions expire.
In July 2018, the United States imposed 25% tariffs on $34 billion worth of products imported from China (List 1). Of importance to the industrial heating industry, included in List 1 were parts of industrial electric furnaces and ovens as well as industrial induction or dielectric heating equipment (HTS 8514.90.80).
With this extension, all products meeting the description of “structural components for industrial furnaces” and are classified under the HTS code 8514.90.8000, will continue to be excluded from the 25% tariff. To claim the extended exclusion, importers must report the regular HTS code for the product, as well as the exclusion HTS code: 9903.88.52.