USTR Expands Exemptions on 301 Tariffs for Chinese-Made LVT

Washington, DC, June 8, 2020-The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has responded to a Wellmade filing and granted additional tariff exclusions on Chinese-made LVT products.

The exclusions, granted to Wellmade in early May 2020, include its HDPC rigid core SQEDGE dry back vinyl plank and HDPC rigid core locking strand woven bamboo. This adds to prior key exclusions for locking rigid core used in some of the best vinyl plank flooring and locking rigid core hardwood plank. The description of the expanded range of excluded products defines the product as having, “edges that are interlocking or simply cut at a 90-degree angle.”

These exclusions are retroactive back to September 24, 2018, which provides the opportunity recovery of tariffs paid in these new categories.

All of the Section 301 exclusions granted on flooring product in the $200 Billion Dollar Trade Action (List 3) are scheduled to expire on August 7. The USTR has opened up a website requesting comments from any and all concerned parties to submit comments in support of extending exclusions granted from August 2019 to March 2020. Submission by all in the market that would like to support having these exclusions extended need to be submitted onto the site by June 8, 2020. The USTR site for submitting comments is https://comments.ustr.gov/s/.