Section 232 and 301 Tariff Data and Interactive Maps
Table of Contents:
What are tariffs?
A tariff is a tax levied on imported goods and paid by the importer. Consumers generally bear the burden of the tax when the import is a final consumer good, and manufacturers generally bear the burden when the import is an intermediate good although it depends on market conditions and numerous other factors.
The current administration imposed tariffs under both Section 301(B) of the Trade Act of 1974 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Using the datasets for both Section 301 and Section 232, we created these charts and interactives that can be found on this page. The charts, maps and datasets will be updated as additional exclusion requests are submitted.
Section 301 Tariffs
Under Section 301(B) of the Trade Act of 1974, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) conducted an investigation into certain acts, policies, and procedures of the Chinese government related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation. Following the investigation, the USTR invited public comment on a proposed list of tariffs. USTR then modified the list and on July 6, 2018, the first tranche of tariffs went into effect. To date, there have been three tranches of tariffs, accounting for approximately $250 billion of US imports from China (nearly half of the value of US imports from China in 2018). The fourth tranche, if implemented, would cover nearly the remaining amount of trade.
In response to these increased costs, US firms and individuals had the opportunity to request for a specific product to be excluded from tranche one, two or three. If an exclusion request is approved, then the product is removed from the list and is no longer subject to the Section 301 tariff. An approval is then valid for one year. The exclusion request process is conducted by the USTR, and all requests for tranche one and two are made publically available on regulations.gov. For tranche three, all the requests are made publically available on https://exclusions.ustr.gov/s/PublicDocket.
The request process closed for tranche one in October 2018 and tranche two in December 2018. As of November 18, 2019, tranche one had 10,814 exclusion requests, of which 3,655 were approved (34 percent), 7,158 were denied (66 percent), and 1 remains pending (0.01 percent). Tranche two had 2,869 exclusion requests, of which 1,073 were approved (37 percent), 1,794 denied (63 percent), and 2 remain pending (0.07 percent).
The request process closed for tranche three in October of 2019. As of June 8, 2020 tranche three had 30,283 exclusions requests, of which 1,497 were approved (5 percent), 28,786 were denied (95 percent), and 0 remain pending.
The request process closed for tranche 4A in January of 2020. As of June 8, 2020 tranche 4A had 8,781 exclusions requests, of which 167 (1.9 percent) were approved, 0 were denied, and 8,614 remain pending (98.1 percent).
Section 232 Tariffs
Under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the Commerce Department conducted investigations to determine whether steel and aluminum import tariffs pose a threat to national security. On March 8, 2018, President Trump used the recommendations from these Commerce reports to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum. A tariff is a tax levied on imported goods and paid by the importer.
In response to these increased costs, US firms and individuals that use steel and aluminum may file a request to be excluded from these tariffs. The exclusion request process is conducted by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the Commerce Department, and all requests are made publicly available on regulations.gov. US producers of steel and aluminum have the ability to object to any exclusion request within 30 days of its submission. Multiple objections can be made for a single exclusion request.
As of June 17, 2019, there have been a total of 72,771 steel and aluminum tariff exclusion requests filed by 1,060 firms. The firms filing the exclusion requests represent 288 congressional districts for steel tariff exclusions and 149 congressional districts for aluminum tariff exclusions.
There have been 62,797 exclusion requests for an exemption from the steel tariffs, and steel manufacturers have filed 22,210 objections. The BIS has reached a decision on 70 percent of the steel exclusion requests; 30,545 (49 percent) have been approved, 13,261 (21 percent) have been denied, and 18,991 (30 percent) remain pending.
There have been 9,974 exclusion requests for an exemption from the aluminum tariffs, and aluminum manufacturers have filed 2456 objections. The BIS has reached a decision on 59 percent of the aluminum exclusion requests; 4,978 (50 percent) have been approved, 862 (9 percent) have been denied, and 4134 (41 percent) remain pending.
Section 232 - New Portal
As on June 19, 2019, the Commerce Department received exclusion requests in a new online portal specifically designed for the Section 232 steel and aluminum exclusion requests. The new portal can be found here.
On this new portal, we found that as of January 19, 2021 here have been a total of 153,831 steel and aluminum tariff exclusion requests filed by 941 firms. The firms filing the exclusion requests represent 269 congressional districts for steel tariff exclusions and 137 congressional districts for aluminum tariff exclusions.
There have been 142,582 exclusion requests for an exemption from the steel tariff, and 11,249 exclusion requests for an exemption from the aluminum tariff on the new portal. As of January 19, 2020, the BIS has reached a decision on 90 percent of the steel exclusion requests: 99,728 (70 percent) approved, 29,216 (20 percent) denied, and 13,638 (10 percent) remain pending. 3,147 were withdrawn and 17,789 have an unknown status.
Similarly for the aluminum tariff exclusion requests: 8,620 (77 percent) approved, 2,255 denied (20 percent), 374 (3 percent) remain pending, 358 withdrawn and 1,919 have an unknown status.
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All QuantGov related data, including tariff data, can be found on the download data page of this website.
Produced by Christine McDaniel and Joe Brunk with the Trade and Immigration Project of the Mercatus Center.
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