Did a past line pay the Section 301 forced-labor duty it didn't owe?

What does note 52 exempt?

The forced-labor duty is written as a charge on "all products" of each of 60 economies, with exceptions. The exceptions are not a petition process: USTR declined to create one in its July 2026 notice (91 FR 47318). They are the subdivisions of U.S. note 52 to subchapter III of chapter 99, each tied to a Chapter 99 heading that the line reports instead of the country heading. The country headings themselves say so: 9903.05.84, for Vietnam, reads "Except for products described in headings 9903.05.85–9903.05.92, articles the product of Vietnam".

Note 52 and these headings were first printed in HTSUS Revision 13 (2026); the table follows Revision 23, the release checked for this page. Subdivision (f) gained patented pharmaceutical articles for entries from July 31, 2026, under Annex I, Part B of the same USTR notice.

Which past lines are most likely to have paid anyway?

The exemptions that depend on the code alone are the easiest to miss and the easiest to prove. Subdivision (b) lists more than 800 tariff numbers, and they are not obscure: green and roasted coffee, tea and spices, natural rubber, many chemicals, portable computers (8471.30.01) and other data processing machines, smartphones (8517.13.00), semiconductor devices and integrated circuits (8541, 8542), and semiconductor manufacturing equipment (8486). A broker who keys the country heading from the origin field alone will charge 10 or 12.5 percent on every one of them.

Four more patterns turn up on past entries:

• Section 232 lines with a country heading. A line under 9903.82.02 or 9903.82.04 to 9903.82.26, a vehicle or parts heading, a wood products heading or 9903.79.01 should carry 9903.05.90. Note the trap the other way: heading 9903.82.03, for listed articles outside chapters 72, 73, 74 and 76 with less than 15 percent metal by weight, is not on the note 52(f) list, so those lines pay the forced-labor duty.
• USMCA goods entered free with a country heading. A Canadian or Mexican good entered free under the agreement should carry 9903.05.93 or 9903.05.94, not 9903.05.29 or 9903.05.55. The exemption follows the duty-free claim, so a line where the claim was missed needs both corrected.
• Economy-specific lists. The lists in subdivision (j) apply only to the named economy: 8419.20.0010 and many medical devices of chapter 90 for the United Kingdom (9903.05.96), cork, silk and certain gems for the EU (9903.05.97), and similar lists for Switzerland, Malaysia and others.
• In-transit goods. Goods on the water before 12:01 a.m. on July 24, 2026 and entered by 12:01 a.m. on July 28 belonged under 9903.05.85. That window is four days of entries, but every one of them paid in full if the heading was missed.

How do you test a line?

1. Take the line's tariff number and country of origin, with the entry date and every Chapter 99 number reported.
2. Skip lines entered before July 24, 2026 and lines from economies outside the 60.
3. Match the code against note 52(b) and (c) as printed. An 8-digit entry covers every statistical suffix; a 10-digit entry covers that number only.
4. Check the conditional exemptions. For (d), is the article for civil aircraft and does it meet general note 6? For (e), is it for use in pharmaceutical applications? Both need evidence the importer keeps, not a code match.
5. Check the other Chapter 99 numbers on the line. A Section 232 heading from the (f) list means 9903.05.90. A free USMCA or CAFTA-DR claim means the agreement exemption.
6. Check the economy's own list in (j), if the origin has one.
7. Compare the result with the heading on the 7501. A country heading where an exemption fits is an overpayment of 10 or 12.5 percent of the entered value; an exemption heading where none fits is an underpayment of the same size.

A post-entry audit runs these steps across every line of an entry export, including the code matches against each subdivision, and lists the lines in both directions with the heading that should have been reported.

Worked lines

The products and entries are illustrative; the codes, headings and rates are read from HTSUS Revisions 13 and 23.

Line A, an overpayment. Portable computers, 8471.30.01 (general rate Free), product of Vietnam, entered August 20, 2026, entered value $200,000. The entry reports 9903.05.84 at 12.5 percent. Subheading 8471.30.01 is listed in note 52(b), so the line belonged under 9903.05.86.

Line B, an agreement exemption. Plastic household articles, product of Mexico, entered free under the USMCA on September 8, 2026, entered value $90,000. The entry carries 9903.05.55 at 10 percent. Under note 52(h) a Mexican good entered free under the agreement belongs under 9903.05.94: overpaid $9,000.

Line C, an underpayment. Sodium hydroxide, 2815.11.00, product of India, entered August 31, 2026, entered value $50,000, sold to a paint maker. The entry claims 9903.05.89. Subheading 2815.11.00 is on the note 52(e) list, but that exemption covers only articles for use in pharmaceutical applications, so the line owed 9903.05.44 at 10 percent: underpaid $5,000.

Run across a year of entries, Line A is the pattern that moves the most money: a single code on the (b) list, keyed the same way on every shipment.

How is it corrected, and by when?

The forced-labor duty applies to entries from July 24, 2026. As of November 2026 none of those entries is 300 days old, so unless CBP liquidated one early, each is still open to a post-summary correction. Check the liquidation status of each entry before you file.

The 300 days run from each entry's own date. For the first day of the duty, July 24, 2026, that is May 20, 2027. For Line A, entered August 20, 2026, it is June 16, 2027. If CBP has extended liquidation at the importer's request, only the 15-day rule applies. Track the date entry by entry: an entry that liquidates before the correction is filed moves to the protest route.

The correction replaces the country heading with the exemption heading on the line and removes the duty. For an exemption that rests on a condition, keep the evidence with the entry file: certificates and use records for civil aircraft, end-use statements and customer records for pharmaceutical use, the bill of lading for in-transit goods and the origin documents for a USMCA claim.

Underpayments like Line C go the other way. A post-summary correction can pay the difference before liquidation; where the error may be a violation of 19 U.S.C. 1592, read prior disclosure after you find an underpayment first. File either kind with a licensed customs broker.

Where does this fit in a wider review?

The exemption test is one step in checking the forced-labor layer; the rate groups, the floor economies and the stacking with the China lists are on what the Section 301 forced-labor duty adds to an entry line. The full set of refund routes by finding is on recover overpaid import duty, the deadlines side by side on how long you have to fix a past entry, and the whole review on post-entry customs audit of Form 7501. For a single code and date, the duty calculator shows whether the forced-labor layer applies.