The Biden Administration has announced that it will renew tariff waivers for 352 categories of goods imported from China after previously granted exemptions expired. The exempted items include certain kinds of bicycle parts, electric motors, machinery, chemicals, seafood and duffel bags.
All of the goods in question were exempt from all tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration as part of the 2018 and 2019 trade wars with China, but those exemptions had expired.
The Biden administration said it had reviewed 549 categories of goods that required tax exemptions, and on Wednesday the US Trade Representative granted 352 tax exemptions and refused the rest.
The decision will have a relatively small impact on the tariffs. The tariffs imposed earlier in 2018 and 2019 included more than $350 billion a year's worth of trade and companies had filed more than 53,000 requests for tariff relief.
Tariffs are paid by US importers, many of whom put pressure on Trump and the Biden administration to expand the range of goods eligible for exclusion claiming that the tariffs were hurting the US companies in many cases.
The USTR has declined to renew exclusions on 197 categories of products, including four-wheel off-road vehicles from China. Almost 150 dealers selling ATVs made by Zhejiang CF Moto Power Co. Ltd. in China have supported the exclusion.