The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has decided that two of the original tariff actions against China will not end. The July 6, 2018 and Aug. 23, 2018 Section 301 actions, which put 25 percent duties on thousands of Chinese product lines, were set to lapse this summer unless American industries asked for them to continue. Enough of them did, and the agency’s Oct. 7 notice says both actions “will remain in effect, subject to possible further modifications.”

What the two actions cover

Section 301 is the trade law under which USTR acts against another country’s practices. These two actions came out of its investigation into China’s technology transfer and intellectual property policies. According to USTR’s May 6 notice, the July 2018 action, known as List 1, put a 25 percent duty on 818 tariff subheadings worth about $34 billion a year in trade. The August 2018 action, List 2, put 25 percent on another 279 subheadings worth about $16 billion.

Both lists have been changed since 2018 through added product lists, exclusions and a first four-year review. Two larger lists that came later, List 3 at $200 billion and List 4 at $300 billion, are shown on USTR’s tariff actions page. They are not part of this decision.

The people most directly affected are the importers who bring in goods covered by those two lists, and shoppers and small businesses who buy what those importers sell. For them the plain question is whether the 25 percent duties are going away. For now they are not, and nothing in the Oct. 7 notice changes a rate.

USTR says the 25 percent duties on these two lists can still be modified, and the second four-year review that follows is the next place a rate could move.

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Why neither action ended

The law behind Section 301 sets a clock. An action ends at the close of four years unless a domestic industry that benefits from it asks USTR to keep it. The May notice, signed by USTR General Counsel Jennifer Thornton, put it this way: “such action shall terminate at the close of such 4-year period.”

USTR opened a request window for each action. For the July action it ran May 7 through July 5, 2026, and for the August action it ran June 24 through Aug. 22. Industries that benefit from both actions had to file separately for each.

The Oct. 7 notice counts the responses. For the July 6 action, 68 domestic producers and 18 trade associations asked for continuation. For the Aug. 23 action, 57 producers and 19 trade associations asked. A KPMG summary of the decision says USTR “received numerous requests to continue both actions,” and that neither one ended on its four-year anniversary.

A product exclusion gets a technical fix

Alongside the continuation, USTR amended one product exclusion. KPMG reports that the change responds to updates in the way import categories are numbered in the U.S. tariff schedule, which took effect July 1, 2026. The amendment covers goods entered on or after July 1, 2026, and is meant to “maintain the pre-existing product coverage,” so it is a housekeeping change and not a new exclusion. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is to issue entry guidance and instructions for putting it into practice.

The review that comes next

Continuing the actions is the first step. USTR says it will now carry out the second statutory four-year review and will publish a separate notice laying out how it works. The agency has not yet announced a date for that notice or a deadline for public comments.

The earlier May notice says the later phase will look at how well the actions have worked, whether other action is called for, and “the effects of such actions on the United States economy, including consumers.” That is the part of the process where the price side of the tariffs gets examined, and USTR has said interested persons will be able to weigh in. This notice itself puts no dollar figure on what consumers pay because of the duties.

Following the review and the comment window

The free place to watch is USTR’s own site at ustr.gov, where the Section 301 pages list the notices as they come out. The review process will be announced in a separate Federal Register notice, and that is where the comment deadline and the instructions for filing will appear. For help with the process, USTR’s Section 301 Hotline is (202) 395-5725.

Small businesses that import from China should match the tariff code on each shipment against the covered product lists. Whether a particular item carries the 25 percent duty depends on its code, not on its description, and the lists have been amended many times since 2018. Customs brokers and the tariff schedule itself settle that question item by item.

Shoppers have less to do. The Oct. 7 notice leaves the duties as they were. The thing worth watching is the review notice, since it opens the door to modifications to a rate or a product list, and USTR has said it will invite comment on the economic effects on consumers.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.