Section 301

What Section 301 means

Section 301 is a part of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974. It lets the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) investigate another country's unfair trade behavior and respond, usually by adding a tariff on that country's goods.

For an importer, a "Section 301 tariff" is an extra charge you pay when your goods enter the United States. It gets added on top of the normal duty, and it depends on where the goods were made. Most people know it from the tariffs the U.S. put on Chinese goods starting in 2018.

What a Section 301 action is made of

A Section 301 action has two parts:

1. The investigation – USTR looks into whether a country's trade practices are unfair, takes public comments, and decides.

2. The tariff – Once USTR sets a rate, it shows up at the border as a special code called a Chapter 99 code.

For Chinese goods, that code looks like 9903.88 followed by two more digits. You write it on your customs paperwork right next to the product's normal tariff code.

The extra duty is a percentage of what the goods are worth, and it stacks on top of:

1. The normal duty you were already going to pay

2. Any other tariffs that apply, like steel tariffs or anti-dumping duties

Who deals with Section 301

Section 301 reaches almost anyone who brings goods into the United States. It shows up in:

1. Machinery and electronics

2. Chemicals

3. Furniture and car parts

4. Clothing

5. Solar panels

6. Electric-vehicle and battery supply chains

Three groups actually handle it:

1. The importer of record – This is the company legally bringing the goods in

2. The licensed customs broker – This is the person who files the paperwork

3. Operations and finance staff – These are the teams who budget for the duty

It lands at one exact moment: customs entry, when you tell Customs what you're importing and pay what you owe, before the goods are sold.

How Section 301 works step by step

Section 301 runs the same way every time a shipment crosses the border:

1. Confirm where the goods were made – Origin is what triggers the tariff, not the port the goods shipped from.

2. Find the product's tariff code – This is also called an HTS code.

3. Check the Section 301 lists – See whether that HTS code appears on one.

4. Find the rate and the matching Chapter 99 code, if the code is listed.

5. Calculate the extra duty on the value of the goods.

6. File the entry with the codes in order. Section 301 codes are listed first among trade-remedy codes.

Leaving off the Chapter 99 code, or using the wrong one, is the single most common mistake. The filing system will bounce the line back if it's missing.

A real example of Section 301

The clearest example is the China action.

After USTR investigated how China handled technology transfer and intellectual property, it rolled out tariffs in four waves between 2018 and 2019. Each wave covered a different batch of products, and USTR simply numbered them in the order it released them: List 1, List 2, List 3, and List 4A. "List" just means "this group of products, at this rate":

1. List 1 – Industrial machinery, electronics, and robotics, taxed at 25%

2. List 2 – Semiconductors, plastics, and chemicals, taxed at 25%

3. List 3 – Furniture, car parts, and building materials, taxed at 25%

4. List 4A – Clothing, footwear, and consumer goods, taxed at 7.5%

Together, these cover roughly $370 billion of imports a year, and they're still in force today.

In 2024, the U.S. raised rates on a few goods it cared about most, pushing Chinese electric vehicles to 100% and solar cells to 50%. Then, on July 24, 2026, a separate Section 301 action added tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on goods from 60 countries, this time over the use of forced labor, not intellectual property.

The main kinds of Section 301 actions

Section 301 isn't one single tariff. It has taken the shape of several separate actions over the years, each aimed at a different country or problem.

The China lists

The four waves of tariffs the U.S. put on Chinese goods between 2018 and 2019. Still the biggest Section 301 action by far. Each list covers a different batch of products at rates from 7.5% to 25%, and the U.S. added much higher rates in 2024 on a few priority goods (100% on electric vehicles, 50% on solar cells). An importer buying almost anything made in China deals with these lists first.

The Airbus aircraft action

Came out of a long fight over subsidies the European Union gave to the plane maker Airbus. In 2019, the U.S. put tariffs of 10% to 15% on European aircraft and 25% on other European goods like wine and cheese. It was paused in 2021 as part of a deal with the EU, so it is mostly history now, but it still shows Section 301 being used against Europe rather than China.

The forced-labor action

Started on July 24, 2026, and is the widest Section 301 action yet. It puts a 10% or 12.5% tariff on goods from 60 countries the U.S. says haven't done enough to keep forced-labor goods out of trade. Because it touches 60 countries at once, an importer never affected by the China lists can suddenly be affected by this one.

The Brazil action

Also began in July 2026. Puts a 25% tariff on most goods from Brazil over its rules on digital payments and intellectual property, among other things. It's recent, so anyone sourcing from Brazil needs to check it directly rather than assume the goods are clear.

How Section 301 differs from other tariffs

Section 301 gets mixed up with three other U.S. tariff tools all the time. They're genuinely different, and more than one can hit the same shipment at once.

Section 301 vs Section 232

Section 301 targets a country's unfair trade behavior and is run by the trade representative's office. Section 232 is a national-security tariff on specific products like steel, aluminum, and cars, run by the Commerce Department. Both can apply to one shipment, and they stack. One practical difference matters for money: China Section 301 duties can often be claimed back if you later export the goods, but Section 232 duties cannot.

Section 301 vs Section 201

Section 201 is a safeguard tariff. It kicks in when a flood of fairly traded imports, meaning imports that aren't cheating in any way, hurts a U.S. industry badly enough that the government steps in to protect it. The key difference is that Section 201 doesn't require any finding that another country behaved unfairly, while Section 301 always starts from that kind of finding.

Section 301 vs Anti-dumping and countervailing duties

Anti-dumping and countervailing duties, often shortened to AD/CVD, go after two specific tricks: selling goods below fair price, and getting unfair subsidies from a foreign government. The Commerce Department calculates these product by product and company by company. They're separate from Section 301 and stack on top of it, so a single product can carry both.

Common questions about Section 301

Who pays Section 301 tariffs?

The U.S. importer of record pays the Section 301 tariff, not the foreign supplier. You pay it when the goods enter the country, based on the value of the goods, before you've sold anything. If a supplier offers to "handle" the tariff for you, ask exactly what that means, because the legal duty to pay still sits with the company bringing the goods into the United States.

Is Section 301 the same as Section 232?

No. Section 301 targets a country's unfair trade practices and is run by the trade representative's office. Section 232 is a national-security tariff on specific products like steel and cars, run by the Commerce Department. Both can hit the same shipment and stack together. One useful difference: China Section 301 duties can often be refunded if you re-export the goods, while Section 232 duties cannot.

How do I know if my product has a Section 301 tariff?

It comes down to two things: where the product was made, and its tariff code. If the goods were made in a country under a Section 301 action, and the product's HTS code sits on one of the tariff lists, the tariff applies. You check this by classifying the product, looking it up on the USTR Section 301 list and the official tariff schedule, and matching it to the right Chapter 99 code. A licensed customs broker usually runs this check.

What are the Section 301 tariff lists?

For China, the tariffs came out as four lists between 2018 and 2019:

1. List 1 (25%) and List 2 (25%) – cover machinery, electronics, and chemicals

2. List 3 (25%) – covers furniture, car parts, and many everyday goods

3. List 4A (7.5%) – covers clothing, footwear, and consumer goods

A fifth batch, List 4B, was proposed but never took effect. In 2024, the U.S. added higher rates on priority goods like electric vehicles and solar cells.

Can Section 301 duties be refunded?

Sometimes. The China Section 301 duties qualify for duty drawback, which lets you claim the money back when you later export the goods you imported. Customs confirmed this in an official guidance message. You can also get money back if the government grants a product exclusion that covers your goods and makes it retroactive. Section 232 duties, by contrast, cannot be refunded this way.