Phase 1 Deal with China, List 4 Exclusion Process Announced

Last week, the Trump Administration met with China at the White House to continue negotiations on a trade deal. The meeting, spanning two days, has laid the groundwork for a Phase One deal. While specifics are still murky, optimism for next steps helped to de-escalate the rising tariffs, delaying the October 15th scheduled increase. At the same time, USTR announced that exclusions requests for List 4A could be filed beginning October 31. 

​President Trump met with Chine Vice Premier Liu late the week of October 13th at the White House. While speculations varied widely about the possible results, reports from both the Administration and most recently the Vice Premier indicate the groundwork for a Phase One deal is well underway. While the text of the deal is still being nailed down, according to Treasure Secretary Mnuchin the deal will include intellectual property, currency, and agriculture. While House economic advisory Larry Kudlow expanded on the agriculture component noting that China’s commitment to the purchase of $40-50 billion of agricultural products “would depend in part on private companies and market conditions.” Bloomberg reported that Chinese Vice Premier Liu confirmed a Phase One deal, commenting “China and the U.S. have made substantial progress in many aspects, and laid an important foundation for a phase one agreement,” though he did not confirm any specifics of the deal. Trump is optimistic that that the trade deal will be signed by mid-November. While the deal is not yet complete and is only a part of a larger, more comprehensive agreement, the talks did prevent the escalation of the Section 301 List 1-3 tariffs planned for October 15th.
 
Meanwhile, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced on Friday October 18th that the Office would begin accepting tariff exclusion requests for important subject to 15% tariff on List 4A products that went into effect on September 1, 2019. Exclusion requests can be submitted beginning October 31, 2019 via the new exclusion portal.