Section 301 Tariffs: What Importers Should Know in 2026

If you import anything from China into the United States, Section 301 tariffs are probably the biggest line item in your landed cost that you did not choose. Imposed in 2018 and 2019, they never went away, and in 2026 the landscape moved again: a February Supreme Court ruling wiped out a different set of China tariffs, and a new 12.5% Section 301 duty took effect on July 24, 2026. For many products, the combined tariff is at its highest yet.

These duties are not negotiable at the factory door. US Customs collects them on the American side, based on your product's classification, and they stack on top of every other duty you owe. Many buyers discover a rate moved only when the broker's entry summary arrives, the worst possible moment. The good news: Section 301 exposure is knowable in advance, checkable product by product, and in several lawful ways reducible.

What Section 301 tariffs actually are

Section 301 refers to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the US law that lets the United States Trade Representative (USTR) retaliate with tariffs when foreign trade practices are found unfair. In 2018, after a formal investigation into forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and discriminatory licensing, USTR concluded that China was burdening US commerce.

Between July 2018 and September 2019, the US imposed additional duties on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese imports, organized into numbered product lists. Those lists are still the legal structure today; every later adjustment has been layered onto that foundation.

Two features matter most. First, Section 301 tariffs target origin, not route: they apply to Chinese-origin goods regardless of which port they sail from. Second, they fall on the importer of record, usually you, not your factory. An FOB price quoted in Shenzhen says nothing about what CBP will collect in Long Beach.

The four Section 301 lists and what each covers

The original action divided products into four lists of HTS codes; the list your product appears on decides your rate.

List · Took effect · Rate · Scale · Typical products

• List 1: July 6, 2018 · 25% · $34B, 818 HTS lines · Industrial machinery, robotics, aerospace components
• List 2: August 23, 2018 · 25% · $16B, 279 HTS lines · Semiconductors, plastics, chemicals, railway equipment
• List 3: Sept 24, 2018 · 25% (raised from 10% in May 2019) · $200B, 5,733 HTS lines · Furniture, lighting, consumer electronics components, auto parts, textiles
• List 4A: Sept 1, 2019 · 7.5% (reduced from 15% in Feb 2020) · $120B, 3,243 HTS lines · Apparel, footwear, electronics, home goods
• List 4B: Never implemented · Suspended · ~$160B, ~3,000 lines · Laptops, smartphones, toys, video game consoles

The key points: List 4B never went into force, which is why laptops, phones, and toys sit outside Section 301. List 4A's rate dropped from 15% to 7.5% under the January 2020 Phase One deal. And List 3 is the giant: nearly 6,000 tariff lines at 25%, covering most of what a typical importer buys. Trade reporting estimates the actions cover roughly $370 billion of annual Chinese imports, about two-thirds of everything the US buys from China.

The strategic-sector hikes that raised the ceiling

A May 2024 four-year review kept the tariffs and directed rate increases on strategic sectors:

Product category · Previous rate · New rate · Effective

• Electric vehicles: 25% · 100% · Sept 2024
• Semiconductors: 25% · 50% · Jan 2025
• Solar cells: 25% · 50% · Sept 2024
• Lithium-ion EV batteries: 7.5% · 25% · Jan 2025
• Non-EV lithium-ion batteries: 7.5% · 25% · 2026
• Ship-to-shore cranes: 0% · 25% · Sept 2024
• Syringes and needles: 0% · 50% · Jan 2025
• Natural graphite: 0% · 25% · 2026

Unless you import in one of these strategic categories, your Section 301 rate is the plain list rate: 25% for Lists 1 through 3, 7.5% for List 4A, nothing for List 4B products.

What changed for importers in 2026

Three events in 2026 reshaped the picture:

The Supreme Court invalidated the IEEPA tariffs. On February 20, 2026, the Court ruled in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. That wiped out the reciprocal and fentanyl-emergency tariffs imposed on China under IEEPA in 2025. The Section 301 duties underneath did not move.

The new 12.5% forced-labor duty. After opening a Section 301 investigation on March 12, 2026 into forced-labor import prohibitions across 60 economies, USTR announced its final decision on July 23, 2026. From 12:01 a.m. on July 24, a new Section 301 duty took effect: 12.5% for China-origin goods, with no built-in expiry date. (A 10% interim surcharge under Section 122 filled the gap between the February ruling and July 23, then expired by law.) Product-level exemptions published in Annex A of the USTR notice, goods already subject to Section 232 duties, and USMCA-qualifying goods sit outside the new duty, but there is no China-specific carve-out: the 12.5% lands on top of whatever Section 301 list rate the product already carried.

What a China-origin product pays as of late 2026:

Your product · Section 301 list rate · Forced-labor duty · Combined, before base duty

• Apparel, footwear, consumer goods (List 4A): 7.5% · 12.5% · 20.0%
• Machinery, electronics parts, furniture, auto parts (Lists 1-3): 25% · 12.5% · 37.5%
• Laptops, phones, toys (List 4B, never implemented): 0% · 12.5% · 12.5%
• Strategic categories (EVs, semiconductors, solar): Per review (up to 100%) · 12.5% · Additive

These percentages stack on top of your normal most-favored-nation duty: a List 3 product with a 5% base duty now lands at roughly 42.5% total. Layers add; they do not compound.

USTR also extended exclusions for 178 Chinese products through November 10, 2026, per trade press reporting. Exclusions are product-specific and temporary, which leads to the next question.

How to check whether your product is affected

Everything above is general. What you need is your product's specific exposure, and you can find it in five steps.

Step 1: Get the right HTS code. Your Section 301 exposure lives and dies by your 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule classification. Get one from your customs broker, and do not rely on your factory's HS code: factories classify for Chinese export purposes, and the US classification can differ.

Step 2: Look it up on the official HTS search. The US International Trade Commission's tariff search shows the duty structure for any 10-digit code. This is the authoritative reference, not a forwarder's blog table.

Step 3: Check Chapter 99. Section 301 duties are implemented as Chapter 99 additions. In the lookup, the "Additional Duties" column shows any Chapter 99 notes, which is where Section 301 and the forced-labor duty appear. No Chapter 99 note means no Section 301 duty.

Step 4: Cross-reference the USTR annexes. The product lists live in USTR's published annexes. Matching your HTS line against the annex confirms the list and rate, and lets you spot whether a specific exclusion covers your product.

Step 5: Confirm with your customs broker. Classification is a legal judgment, and the importer bears the reasonable-care obligation. A broker review is how you avoid discovering a 25% surprise in an entry summary or a penalty notice.

Rates attach to HTS lines, and USTR periodically adjusts which lines carry which rate. Recheck your top-volume HTS codes annually.

How the duties stack into your real cost

Section 301 duties apply to the customs value of the goods, generally the price you paid the seller, and each duty layer adds its percentage to that same value.

Take a worked example. You import furniture with a $50,000 customs value. The product is on List 3 at 25%, the forced-labor duty is 12.5%, and the base MFN duty is 3%:

• Base duty: 3% of $50,000 = $1,500
• Section 301 List 3: 25% of $50,000 = $12,500
• Forced-labor duty: 12.5% of $50,000 = $6,250
• Total duties: $20,250, or 40.5% of the goods' value

Two points follow. First, the duty base is the customs value, not the retail price, which is why declared-value accuracy matters. Second, on high-tariff categories the duty bill can approach half the product cost, so tariff exposure belongs in your sourcing decision before you choose a factory, not after the goods are on the water. We cover the full calculation in our guide to how tariffs affect your China sourcing costs.

How to document your tariff position for your broker

Your broker can only classify and declare correctly with the right inputs from you. Assemble this package before the first shipment under any tariff regime.

The product dossier. A plain-language description of what the product is, what it's made of, and what it does. Not marketing copy; the physical facts a classifier needs. Include materials by weight or value percentage, because classification often turns on composition.

The 10-digit HS code with reasoning. Don't just hand over a number. Note which heading you chose and why, especially if the product could plausibly fall under two headings. If a customs ruling (CROSS) exists for an identical product, include it; rulings are the closest thing to a definitive answer.

The country-of-origin analysis. State where the product was manufactured and where substantial transformation occurred, with supplier declarations to back it. Origin determines which tariff layers apply, and "assembled in" versus "made in" are different answers with different duty consequences.

The exclusion or exemption claim, if any. If you believe a product-specific exclusion covers your goods, document the exclusion number, its scope, and its expiry date. Exclusions are temporary and narrow; claiming one that doesn't fit is worse than claiming none.

Keep this package with the entry documents. When CBP issues a CF-28 asking about classification or valuation, the importers who answer fastest are the ones who already have the dossier.

Six lawful strategies importers use to manage Section 301 exposure

There is no legal way to make Section 301 disappear for a product it covers. The strategies below are the established lawful ways to reduce what you pay or recover overpayments. Involve your customs broker or trade counsel before acting.

1. Claim available product exclusions. USTR grants time-limited exclusions by HTS line plus product description. Many importers never check whether their goods qualify; do it annually.

2. Review your classification. Section 301 rates attach to specific HTS lines, and classification is sometimes wrong. A product on a List 3 line might legitimately belong on a line with a lower rate or outside the lists entirely. One reclassification can move a product from 25% to 7.5% or to zero. Classify correctly, not favorably; misclassification to dodge duties is a separate and serious offense.

3. Use first sale valuation where the structure fits. When goods pass through a trading company, customs value is normally the price you paid the intermediary. Under the first sale rule, you may instead declare the lower price the factory charged the middleman, if you can document the chain. If the middleman's markup is 20%, your dutiable value falls 20%, and at a 25% Section 301 rate that saves 5% of the goods' value. On a $200,000 shipment, that is $10,000. It requires genuine multi-tier transactions and thorough documentation.

4. Diversify origin with real manufacturing. Section 301 applies to goods of Chinese origin, and moving final production elsewhere only changes the duty if the goods are substantially transformed there. Minor assembly or relabeling in a third country does not qualify, and CBP investigates this aggressively. Genuine diversification is a legitimate long-term strategy; our guide to switching suppliers covers the operational side.

5. Time purchases around known rate changes. Tariff actions take effect on published dates, and goods entered before a new duty's effective date generally escape it. The July 2026 transition showed this: ocean shipments on the water before July 24 that cleared by July 28 avoided the new 12.5% duty. You cannot manufacture deadlines, but you can accelerate shipments ahead of announced changes.

6. Audit your broker's entries. Mistakes in duty calculation are common: the wrong list rate applied, an exclusion not claimed, a new duty coded incorrectly. An entry audit sometimes turns up recoverable overpayments, and transition periods like 2026 are exactly when errors cluster.

Three moves that will get you fined, not spared

The mirror image of the strategies above is worth stating plainly, because enforcement has intensified alongside the rates.

Transshipping to fake the origin. Routing Chinese goods through a third country and declaring them as originating there, without substantial transformation, is tariff evasion. CBP targets this pattern. Penalties include back duties, fines, and in serious cases criminal prosecution.

Shopping for a friendlier HTS code. There is a bright line between a legitimate classification review and picking a lower-duty code that does not fit. Importers must classify with reasonable care, and CBP penalizes negligence. If someone offers you a code because the duty is lower, walk away.

Understating the customs value. Declaring less than you paid reduces every ad valorem duty at once, which is why it is one of the most heavily penalized violations in customs law. Related-party pricing and first sale valuation are legitimate tools with documentation requirements. A second, lower invoice for customs is fraud. The savings are never worth the exposure.

Frequently asked questions

Are Section 301 tariffs still in effect in 2026?

Yes. All four original lists remain in force after the 2024 four-year review. What changed is the surrounding landscape: the Supreme Court struck down the separate IEEPA tariffs in February, and a new 12.5% Section 301 forced-labor duty took effect on July 24. For most China-origin products, total exposure in late 2026 is higher than a year earlier.

How do I know if my product is subject to Section 301 tariffs?

Look up your 10-digit HTS code on the USITC tariff search at hts.usitc.gov, check the Additional Duties column for Chapter 99 notes, and cross-reference USTR's published annexes to confirm the list and rate. Have your broker verify the classification.

Do Section 301 tariffs apply under the $800 de minimis threshold?

The standard de minimis rule allows goods under $800 per person per day to enter duty-free, but policy changes have targeted de minimis treatment for China-origin goods specifically. Confirm the current rules with your broker before relying on it.

Can I avoid Section 301 tariffs by shipping through Vietnam?

Only if the goods undergo substantial transformation in Vietnam, making it the legal country of origin. Simply routing, warehousing, or repackaging Chinese goods in a third country does not change their origin, and CBP actively investigates this pattern as tariff evasion.

Can I get a refund if Section 301 tariffs are reduced or removed?

Possibly. Product exclusions can apply retroactively to entries made during the exclusion period, and importers can file protests or reliquidation requests to recover duties paid on entries that turn out to have qualified. Deadlines are strict, typically measured from the date of liquidation, so talk to your broker promptly. Unclaimed refunds expire quietly.

What documents should I prepare for my broker on tariff classification?

A product dossier (physical description, materials by percentage), your 10-digit HS code with the reasoning behind it, a country-of-origin analysis with supplier declarations, and any exclusion claim with its number, scope, and expiry date. Brokers classify from your inputs; complete inputs get correct classifications.

Your 48-hour tariff action plan

If you take one thing from this guide, make it this: tariff exposure is a knowable number. Pull your top five products by import value, get their 10-digit HTS codes confirmed, and look each one up. Note the list, the rate, and the forced-labor duty, compute the stacked total against current customs values, and check the exclusion list for each code. That exercise takes an afternoon, and it turns Section 301 from a vague anxiety into a line item you can plan around and in some cases lawfully reduce.

Run the same check before you commit to a new factory, not after the deposit is paid. A product that looks profitable at 7.5% can be a loss at 37.5%. If you want help building tariff exposure into your sourcing decisions from the start, CN Ally's product sourcing team can help, or write to us at hi@cnally.com. Knowing the duty before you buy is the cheapest insurance in importing.