US keeps ten seafood tariff exclusions alive only to January 9
The Office of the US Trade Representative extended all 178 Section 301 product exclusions on Chinese goods to 11:59pm Eastern on 9 January 2027, in a notice issued on 6 November and effective for entries from 10 November. Ten of the 178 cover seafood tariff lines, as SeafoodNews reported. Without the extension those goods would have gone back to additional duties of 7.5% to 25% as of 10 November.
The Numbers
The 178 exclusions split into 164 general product exclusions under HTS heading 9903.88.69 and 14 solar manufacturing equipment exclusions under 9903.88.70, per the prior Federal Register notice that set the original expiry. Only ten of the total are seafood.
Public codes listed under heading 9903.88.69 show how narrow that seafood coverage runs: frozen haddock fillets (0304.72.50), flat fish fillets including sole and flounder (0304.83.10.15 and 0304.83.10.20) and prepared king crab (1605.10.20.10) sit among the covered lines. Shrimp, tilapia, squid and most prepared shellfish are not in that group and keep paying Section 301 duties.
Eligibility turns on the date goods are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, not on the date they leave China. Cargo loading in December still loses the exemption if it clears customs after 9 January.
USTR also pushed the suspension of fees on Chinese-built and Chinese-operated vessels to the same date, so both reliefs now end together.
What It Means for Buyers
For importers moving Chinese-origin whitefish or prepared crab into the United States, the question this quarter is not price. It is the entry date on the CBP summary.
Three things follow. Put the entry date, not the sailing date, into purchase order terms and broker instructions. Rebuild landed cost against a second scenario in which the exclusion lapses on 9 January, because the relief is now measured in weeks rather than a year. And expect December to be tight. With Lunar New Year factory shutdowns in early February, most first-quarter volume has to sail before the holiday, which concentrates bookings into the weeks when the exemption still holds.
For shrimp, tilapia and squid the notice changes nothing. Those lines were never in the ten, and planning should assume Section 301 duties stay in place through 2027.
One more detail worth putting in front of a broker: the exclusion claim depends on matching both the ten-digit statistical number and the product description in the US note. A fillet that fits the code but not the written description does not qualify, and post-entry corrections are expensive.
What to Watch
CBP entry guidance for the extended period, which sets how brokers flag claims in ACE.
Whether USTR opens another comment round before 9 January. The last extension came without one.
China's matching measure: the 24% suspension on US goods runs two months from 10 November, so both sides face the same early-January deadline.
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This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and is published for general information only. It does not constitute trading, pricing, or investment advice, and readers should verify all figures against the original sources linked above before making commercial decisions. Content on this page is partly AI-generated. Easy Seafood makes no warranty as to its accuracy or completeness.
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