Covering 99% of imported goods, new US tariffs are coming

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Recently, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) issued an official announcement that, according to President Trump’s instructions and in accordance with Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, in the name of so-called “forced labor”, new Section 301 tariffs will be imposed on 60 countries and regions to replace the 10% Section 122 tariff that expired on July 24.

The new tariffs will take effect at 00:01 on July 24th, Eastern Time (corresponding to 12:01 noon on July 24th, Beijing time).

Exception for goods in transit: If the goods have been loaded on the ship before 0:01 on July 24, 2026, Eastern Time, and are in the final transit, and the import declaration is completed before 0:01 on July 28, 2026, they will be exempt from paying the new 301 tariff.

The new 301 tariff is divided into four levels:

10% tariff:An additional 10% tariff will be imposed on economies that have established a ban on forced labor imports, or have made commitments through a "Reciprocal Trade Agreement (ART)", or have implemented some restrictive measures.

These economies include: Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom.

301 tariff MFN tax rate = 10%:When the most-favored-nation (MFN) tax rate of a commodity is lower than 10%, an additional Section 301 tariff will be imposed to bring the total to 10%; if the MFN is already higher than or equal to 10%, the Section 301 tax rate will be zero.

Applicable economies include: European Union, Taiwan Province of China.

301 tariff MFN tax rate = 12.5%:When the most-favored-nation (MFN) tax rate of a commodity is lower than 12.5%, an additional Section 301 tariff will be imposed to bring the total to 12.5%; if the MFN is already higher than or equal to 12.5%, the Section 301 tax rate will be zero.

Applicable economies include: Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland.

12.5% tariff:Additional levy applies to economies including: Mainland China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Algeria, Angola, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Guyana, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

It is particularly worth noting that the new 301 tariff is superimposed on the previous 301 tariff, but does not overlap with the 232 tariff.

In addition, a large number of products are exempt from this tariff. The categories of tariff-exempt products are as follows:

📌Information materials, donations and accompanying luggage;

📌All products subject to Section 232 tariffs, including steel, aluminum, copper, automobiles and auto parts, wood, semiconductors, etc., will later be added to patented drugs.

📌Trump directed that exemptions be granted to the following five categories of products:

1. Taxes on raw materials may lead to domestic supply shortages;

2. Products that may cause overall economic chaos;

3. Products that the United States cannot produce in sufficient quantities at reasonable prices or obtain from other sources;

4. Taxing products that do not make a substantial contribution to eliminating the behavior under investigation;

5. Specific products from specific economies (Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador, El Salvador, the European Union, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Switzerland, Taiwan Province of China, and the United Kingdom) to encourage them to fulfill or implement the forced labor import ban.

Textile Tariff Quota (TRQ) mechanism: A three-year tariff quota will be established for the four countries of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Based on the amount of U.S. cotton and textile raw materials imported by these economies, a certain amount of textiles and clothing exported to the U.S. will be exempted from the additional tariffs of Section 301. Before TRQ is officially established, related textiles are temporarily taxed at 10%.