Section 301 Tariffs on China: HTS Code Lookup

Check whether imports under your HTS code paid additional duties under Chapter 99 (Section 301, 232 and others), and how to read the schedule's Chapter 99 footnotes yourself.

Last updated: October 2026. Lookup data: US Census Bureau imports by rate provision. List data: USTR and the USITC HTS.

What are Section 301 tariffs?

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to impose additional tariffs on imports from countries engaged in unfair trade practices. Since 2018, the U.S. has imposed Section 301 tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods across four "Lists."

These duties are in addition to the normal MFN (Most Favored Nation) duty rate. A product with a base rate of "Free" could actually face 25% or more in total duties when imported from China.

The four Section 301 lists

The hidden data source most people don't know about

Most importers think you need a separate database or USTR list to check Section 301 status. You don't. The USITC already cross-references every affected code via Chapter 99 footnotes in the official HTS schedule.

When you look up an HTS code in the USITC data, its footnotes say things like "See 9903.88.15". That provision number IS the Section 301 reference: it defines the additional rate and which country it applies to. The data has been there all along, in the same API that serves the tariff schedule itself.

Chapter 99 itself, where those provisions and their rates live, is part of the USITC schedule, and USITC's China Tariffs list maps subheadings to their Section 301 headings. The API does not compute these additional duties for a code: GET /v1/hts/{code} gives the base rate, and for Section 301 status check the China Tariffs list at hts.usitc.gov.

How to check if your product is affected

Using this page

Enter any HTS code above (6 to 10 digits). We find the code (or its nearest parent) in the current schedule and check US Census Bureau import data for its 6-digit subheading, all countries, latest 12 months: if duty was collected under Chapter 99 (rate provision 69), you see the effective rate on those entries. That shows some imports paid additional duties; it does not name the provision or tell you whether your own shipment is covered. Read the code's footnotes for that.

Using the API

The HTS API /classify response includes Census figures for duty actually collected on past imports, by rate provision; with a country_of_origin, they cover imports from that country, including Section 301/232 duties paid. These are historical averages, not a calculation for your shipment (figures below illustrative):

curl -X POST https://htsapi.dev/v1/classify \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -d '{"description": "men cotton t-shirt", "country_of_origin": "China"}'

# Response includes census_duties with rate provision breakdown:
# "census_duties": {
#   "country": "CHINA",
#   "total_effective_rate_pct": 34.0,
#   "breakdown": [
#     {"rp_code": "69", "rp_label": "Dutiable under HTS chapter 99 (e.g. Section 301, 232), duty reported", "effective_rate_pct": 38.6}
#   ]
# }

Common product categories and their Section 301 status

Section 301 headings from USITC's China Tariffs table of July 28, 2026, checked 2026-10-03, country China. "Paid" is the US Census Bureau figure for July 2026 on entries that paid Chapter 99 duties, for the 6-digit subheading unless marked 10-digit.

Schedule rate + Section 301 is the base rate plus the Section 301 heading, from the USITC schedule. Paid runs above it on every row: measures among the other Chapter 99 lines that name China (13-14 per code here), such as Section 232, applied to at least some of those entries.

What about exclusions?

You may have heard that USTR grants "exclusions" from Section 301 tariffs. This is a common source of confusion. Here's what it actually means:

Exclusions are product-specific, not HTS-code-specific. When USTR grants an exclusion, it exempts a specific product from a specific manufacturer, not the entire HTS code. For example, "Company X's model Y widget" might be excluded from Section 301, but all other widgets under that same HTS code remain subject to the tariff.

This means: if your HTS code has a Section 301 footnote, the tariff applies to your product unless you've specifically applied for and received an exclusion from USTR. A code-level check (the footnote, or the Census figures on this page) is the starting point for any exclusion analysis.

Can I avoid Section 301 by moving manufacturing?

Section 301 duties attach to goods of Chinese origin, and origin is not where the product was assembled: it is where the last substantial transformation occurred. Moving final assembly to Vietnam, Thailand or Mexico does not by itself change origin, and CBP has repeatedly found that Chinese origin survived the move.

We extracted every CBP country-of-origin ruling into a structured form to see how these decisions actually came out. Across the decided cases with Chinese components and manufacturing in Vietnam, a substantial share kept Chinese origin, and the factual difference between those and the ones that changed is visible in CBP's own language. See China components, manufacturing in Vietnam: what CBP actually ruled.

What if my product isn't on any list?

If an HTS code has no Chapter 99 footnotes for Section 301, it's not subject to additional duties under that authority, for now. USTR can modify the lists at any time via Federal Register notices.

Note that even if a product isn't on Section 301, it may still be subject to:

• Section 232: Additional duties on steel (25%), aluminum (25%), and derivatives
• Reciprocal tariffs: Broad country-specific tariffs under various authorities
• AD/CVD duties: Anti-dumping and countervailing duties on specific products from specific countries

Data source and methodology

The code lookup uses the current USITC HTS release (Chapters 1–97), refreshed weekly. The additional-duty check uses the US Census Bureau International Trade API: imports by rate provision for the code's 6-digit subheading, all countries, summed over the latest 12 months Census has published (about two months behind). Rate provision 69 is "dutiable under HTS chapter 99". The list table above is drawn from USTR's Section 301 actions and the HTS Chapter 99 provisions they created.