Section 301 China Port Fees: USTR Proposes Two More Months of Suspension, Through January 9, 2027

What happened

On October 26, 2026, USTR published a notice (91 FR 67388) proposing to further suspend the Section 301 action in the investigation of China's targeting of the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors — for two months, from 12:00 a.m. ET on November 10, 2026 through 11:59 p.m. ET on January 9, 2027. The stated purpose: to allow further negotiation with China over the acts, policies, and practices at issue.

If finalized, the extension would mean that during that window no party accrues liability for, or has to pay:

• the fees on maritime transport services under Annexes I, II, and III of the April 23, 2025 action, as modified by the October 16, 2025 notice; and
• the duties provided in Annex V.A of the October 16, 2025 notice.

The comment window was short: it opened October 23 and closed October 30, 2026 (docket USTR-2026-0694). As of this writing, USTR has not published the final modification — and the current suspension runs out at 11:59 p.m. ET on November 9, 2026. That four-day gap between "comments closed" and "suspension lapses" is the thing to watch.

The suspension timeline

Date	What happened
2025-04-17 / 04-23	USTR determines to act in the Section 301 investigation; the action (Annex I–III fees on maritime transport services) publishes April 23, 2025.
2025-10-16	USTR modifies the action, including new Annex V.A duties.
2025-11-01	White House announces the U.S.–China trade and economic deal struck by Presidents Trump and Xi.
2025-11-13	Suspension notice: the actions are suspended from 12:01 a.m. ET Nov 10, 2025 through 11:59 p.m. ET Nov 9, 2026 (one year).
2026-10-26	New notice proposes a further two-month suspension — Nov 10, 2026 through Jan 9, 2027 — comments due Oct 30.
2026-11-10 → 2027-01-09	Proposed further suspension window (pending final notice).

What this means for cross-border sellers

You do not pay these fees on your customs entry — you pay them inside your ocean freight. The Annex I–III fees target vessel operators (Chinese-owned or -operated fleets and, per the action's structure, Chinese-built vessels), and carriers pass such costs through as surcharges on China–U.S. lanes. The suspension has kept that surcharge layer off base rates for a year; a lapse on November 10 would let it return, and carriers repricing Chinese-vessel capacity is the mechanism by which this reaches your landed cost.

Two scenarios to plan around:

1. Final notice lands (the deal holds): fees stay suspended through January 9, 2027. Ocean rates keep their current structure through the peak-booking season into early Q1. Nothing to do but re-check in January — because the suspension then has a hard stop.
2. No final notice by November 10: the Annex I–III fees and Annex V.A duties technically resume. Even if the final notice comes days later, expect carriers to provisionally reinstate surcharges and sort out retroactivity afterward — that is exactly the kind of gap that produces messy freight invoices.

Duty-side exposure is a watch item, not an invoice item, for most sellers. Annex V.A duties apply within the vessel-operator regime described in the October 16, 2025 notice — but any "duty" framing around shipping capacity tends to pull rates upward well before it shows up in legal liability. Price the behavior change, not just the statute.

What to do now

1. Track USTR between now and November 10 for the final modification notice — that single document decides which scenario you are in. Significant moves land in our Tariff Radar within hours.
2. Ask your freight forwarder now how they will treat China-lane surcharges if the suspension lapses on November 10 — get the answer in writing before you book November shipments.
3. If you are negotiating 2027 rate contracts, write the January 9 cliff into your terms. The two-month window ends in a hard stop unless the deal extends again; build a surcharge-resumption scenario into Q1 landed-cost models.
4. For inland-leg decisions (west coast vs. east coast, air freight bumpers), rerun the numbers with and without a maritime surcharge layer in the tariff calculator.

How we read it

Two-month extensions are negotiation cadence, not policy: USTR is keeping the fee regime loaded but unfired while the U.S.–China deal from November 2025 stays alive. Sellers have now had a full year without the surcharge layer, which means margins quietly absorbed it back in late 2025 and 2026 rates were negotiated around the suspension. The risk is asymmetric at the edges of the window — November 10 (no final notice yet) and January 9 (hard stop, no announced successor). Both are dates your freight budget should treat as live.