In the ongoing US – China trade war the US has granted a one-year tariff exemption to a wide range of products made in China, including some printer consumables.
The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published the list on 20 September and the imaging industry specific items that are exempted are:
- Ink cartridges weighing more than 1 kg
- printer-maintenance kits consisting of two or more replacement parts for printers.
- paper-handling assemblies
According to Datamyne in 2017 the leading importers in these categories are Canon USA Inc, Sharp Electronics Corporation, FX Global Inc and Kyocera Mita America Inc.
In July 2018 The Recycler reported that the USTR would consider requests from companies for the exclusion of particular products from additional duties. Several OEMs have made representations to the USTR, citing economic hardship, and these exemptions are believed to be the result of those representations. The one-year exemption will expire in September 2020.
Effective from the 1 September 2019 a fifteen percent tariff came into effect for printers and copiers made in China.
The complete list of exempted products can be found here.
