U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has confirmed a process for requesting exemptions from all section 301 duties on Chinese exports – not just those applied under list 1 and 2 in July / August 2019 – will soon be put in place. Even if such a mechanism is put in place the chances of a timely resolution to requests is low. Only 49.1% of the 13,761 requests made for list 1 / 2 exemptions have been decided upon in early May. There are 5.2x as many tariff lines in list 3 where 10% duties were applied in September. The need for exemptions will become more pressing if th...