Organization Name:

Note: Representatives submitting on behalf of an organization must enter information below.

Requestor Representative:

Section 301 Investigation: China's Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology 

Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation - Form to Request Exclusion of Product

When submitting a product exclusion request using this form, enter the specified 

information in the following fields and explain the basis and rationale for your statements. 

By completing this form, you certify that the information provided is complete and 

correct to the best of your knowledge. 

1. Indicate whether the comment contains business confidential information (BCI), is a public

document, or is a public version of a BCI document.

3.

2. Please provide a complete and detailed description of the particular product of concern:

4.

*

10-digit HTSUS item number* for product you wish to address in this product exclusion request:

Use numerical characters only with no special characters (example: 1023456789). For help in finding

the HTSUS item number associated with your product, see https://hts.usitc.gov/

7.

5. Requestor's relationship to the product:

6. Does this submission in regulations.gov include additional attachments?

Please indicate whether any additional attachment contains business confidential information 

(BCI), is a public document, or is a public version of a BCI document.

Requestor Information

Requestor Name (Last, First):

VERSION 2 CONTINUED BELOW 1
8. Is this product, or a comparable product, available from sources in the United States? (If you

9. Is this product, or a comparable product, available from sources in third countries? (If you

10. Please provide the value and quantity (with units) of the Chinese-origin product of concern

that you purchased for each calendar year specified. Limit this figure to the products

purchased by your firm (or by members of your trade association) alone. Please provide

estimates if precise figures are unavailable.

2017 Value:

2016 Value:

2015 Value:

2017 Quantity:

2016 Quantity:

2015 Quantity:

% of your total gross sales in 2017 that the Chinese-origin product accounted for.

% of the total cost of producing the final product(s) the Chinese-origin input 

accounts for.

% of your total gross sales in 2017 that sales of the final product(s) incorporating 

the input accounted for.

VERSION 2 CONTINUED BELOW 2

indicate "NO", you must provide support for your assertion in Box 12).

indicate "NO", you must provide support for your assertion in Box 12).

11. Is the Chinese-origin product of concern sold as a final product or an input used in

a) For imports sold as final products, please provide:

b) For imports of inputs used in the production of final products, please provide:

the production of a final product or products?
12. Please provide information in support your request, taking account of the

VERSION 2 END 3

instructions provided in Section B of the Federal Register notice. If you

responded "NO" to Questions 8 or 9, you must provide support for your

assertion in the box below. (Note: text entered below can extend beyond the

apparent size of this box).
1 

VIA ONLINE SUBMISSION

October 9, 2018 

Ambassador Robert Lighthizer 

U.S. Trade Representative 

Office of the U.S. Trade Representative 

600 17th Street NW 

Washington, DC 20508 

Re: Yanjan USA LLC’s Product Exclusion Request for Shaping Drum Systems 

Imported from China (HTSUS 8444.00.0090) 

Dear Ambassador Lighthizer:

Yanjan USA LLC (“Yanjan”) hereby submits our exclusion request for our Shaping Drum 

Systems which are used on each of our six manufacturing lines that are in the process of being 

installed in our Statesville, North Carolina manufacturing plant. These Shaping Drum Systems 

are covered by HTSUS 8444.00.0090. These Shaping Drum Systems are essential to Yanjan’s 

production of a proprietary cloth-like fabric covering for a new generation of absorbent feminine

hygiene products, baby diapers, and other related products. These Shaping Drum Systems are part 

of a proprietary system optimized for a proprietary “Master Blend” of polyethlyene raw materials

that, to the best of our knowledge, is not available from other suppliers. The 25% Section 301 

tariffs would threaten the economic viability of our startup manufacturing plant and would 

jeopardize the jobs of the 100+ people that we will employ by the end of 2018. 

I. Who We Are 

Yanjan is a startup manufacturing company located in Statesville, North Carolina, a rural 

community of about 26,657 residents with a median household income of less than $35,000 and a 

per capita income of less than $20,000.1

 Although Statesville’s 25% poverty rate is higher than 

average in North Carolina, more than 80% of our residents graduate from high school and almost 

20% graduate from college, and 63% are employed.2

 In Statesville, people are ready to work and 

every job counts—but employment at Yanjan’s new textile manufacturing plant is threatened by a 

possible 25% increase in the cost of certain proprietary manufacturing equipment components 

from China and a proprietary Master Blend of polyethylene (PE) polymers that only constitutes

about 15% of our raw material costs but that are essential to achieving the next-generation product 

softness (more technically, “loft”) that enables us to compete in the global market. These

1 Statesville City, North Carolina, U.S. Census, 

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/statesvillecitynorthcarolina/BZA110216. 

2 Id.
2

YANJAN USA LLC

159 Walker Rd. Statesville, NC 28625

PO Box 1071, Statesville, NC 28687-1071

proprietary manufacturing components and the Master Blend of PE are sole-sourced from China 

and to the best of our knowledge are not available from any other source. 

In January 2018, Yanjan launched a manufacturing business in Statesville to make nextgeneration high-loft nonwoven fabric for the absorbent feminine hygiene market. Currently, we 

are focusing on feminine hygiene products, but we look forward to expanding into the baby diaper 

market. Since January, we have acquired and renovated a manufacturing facility, installed the first 

of six production lines, and have just begun shipping commercial product. We currently employ 

about 96 people and expect to increase that number to 128 as soon as all six production lines begin 

operating, which will occur by December 31, 2018. 

Additionally, as a young company, we’ve invested heavily in the Statesville area. [

3

 Below is a picture of our Statesville plant where we will use these Shaping Drum 

Systems. 

Yanjan is happy to provide good-paying jobs for North Carolina residents, [

]

4

, and we are glad to have the support of the 

local Statesville government and representatives. Attached as Exhibits A and B please find letters 

from Statesville’s Mayor Costi Kutteh and the Statesville Department of Regional Development

that explain the importance of Yanjan to the local economy and that support our exclusion request. 

3

 The bracketed portions of these comments contain business confidential information. The 

disclosure of this information would endanger trade secrets or profitability and this information 

would not customarily be released to the public. 

4

 The bracketed portions of these comments contain business confidential information. The 

disclosure of this information would endanger trade secrets or profitability and this information 

would not customarily be released to the public. 
3

YANJAN USA LLC

159 Walker Rd. Statesville, NC 28625

PO Box 1071, Statesville, NC 28687-1071

II. Yanjan’s Start-Up Manufacturing Business Cannot Absorb These 25%

Tariffs; Thus, Working People in Statesville Will Suffer The Economic Loss

The proprietary components of our manufacturing equipment and certain proprietary raw 

materials that make up our proprietary Master Blend are sourced from China and are at risk of 

disruption due to the Section 301 tariffs imposed by the USTR. 

5

As a small start-up, we are rather budget-conscious and as a young company we need to be 

careful about our expenditures. We set out our budget for essential items (our plant, equipment, 

materials, labor) well in advance in order to ensure that we have the appropriate financing in place. 

Our budget was set, and our initial orders for both manufacturing equipment and raw materials6

were placed, long before these increased tariffs were proposed. We could not foresee and therefore 

did not budget for such a large and sudden increase in our operating costs. Such an increase will 

hurt our business and our employees. 

III. Continued Application of Increased Tariffs to Yanjan’s Manufacturing

Equipment Will Not Protect American Citizens or their Intellectual Property

We understand that the Section 301 tariffs were designed, in part, to discourage the 

misappropriation of U.S. intellectual property arising from certain practices of the Chinese 

government. But our manufacturing equipment does not put any American intellectual property 

at risk. This Shaping Drum System is neither related nor strategically important to the “Made in 

China 2025” initiative, in which the Chinese government is subsidizing innovative technologies 

to sharpen China’s edge in the global marketplace. Nor do we believe this Shaping Drum 

System is related to any other Chinese industrial program, act, or policy related to technology 

transfer, intellectual property, or the practices identified by the USTR as unreasonable or 

discriminatory. Instead of helping Americans, imposing these Section 301 tariffs on the Shaping 

Drum Systems we import will harm Americans, as it makes it more difficult for American 

companies, like Yanjan, to create manufacturing plants and manufacturing jobs. 

5

 The bracketed portions of these comments contain business confidential information. The 

disclosure of this information would endanger trade secrets or profitability and this information 

would not customarily be released to the public. 

6

 Our raw materials imported under 3206.19.0000 (Pigments and preparations based on titanium 

dioxide, nesoi) and 3901.40.0000 (Ethylene-alpha-olefin copolymers, having a specific gravity 

of less than 0.94) are also subject to increased tariffs under the third wave of these Section 301 

tariffs. 
4 

YANJAN USA LLC

159 Walker Rd. Statesville, NC 28625

PO Box 1071, Statesville, NC 28687-1071

Companies like us, which import Shaping Drum Systems as part of their manufacturing 

lines, could have moved their manufacturing outside of the United States, but they chose instead

to keep manufacturing jobs here in the United States. These companies should not be forced to 

shoulder increased tariffs on manufacturing equipment that is going to be used by American 

employees in the U.S. to create products for American consumers, particularly when the 

application of tariffs to these products will not help the USTR achieve its goal of ending the 

practices it has identified as troubling. 

IV. This Shaping Drum System Cannot Feasibly be Sourced from Outside of

China

Where possible, we source our equipment from the United States; however, in certain 

cases, like the Shaping Drum System that is the subject of this request, it is not possible to source 

the specific manufacturing equipment we need for our next-generation nonwoven fabric outside 

of China. This Shaping Drum System needed to be specially crafted in China as part of the 

proprietary system which allows us to create our next generation nonwoven fabric from a 

proprietary Master Blend of PE polymers which provide a product characteristic (softness) that 

our sole customer requires. This proprietary Master Blend of PE is sole-sourced from China and 

to the best of our knowledge is not available from any other source. Similarly, it would not be 

possible for us to obtain our Shaping Drum System, which is part of the proprietary system 

which takes the proprietary Master Blend and creates our product, from outside of China. 

V. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) Can Easily Administer This 

Exclusion Request

CBP will be able to administer the requested exclusion without undue complication or 

expense, because the Shaping Drum System is easy to identify using the detailed description

provided, which includes the relevant specifications, along with the relevant HTSUS number. 

We have additionally attached, as Exhibit C, a detailed drawing of our Shaping Drum System. 

VI. Conclusion

Because the continued imposition of these increased tariffs on our manufacturing lines 

would harm our young American business and because we do not believe that imposing tariffs 

on these products will help the USTR achieve its goal of eliminating the Chinese acts and 

practices that the USTR has identified as troubling, we humbly request an exclusion from these 

tariffs for Shaping Drum System (HTSUS 8444.00.0090). 

Exhibit A 

 

Exhibit B 

 
       

VIA ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION

September 28, 2018

Ambassador Robert Lighthizer

U.S. Trade Representative  

Office of the U.S. Trade Representative  

600 17th Street NW

Washington, D.C. 20508

Re: Yanjan USA LLC’s Request for Tariff Exclusion  

Dear Ambassador Lighthizer:  

The Statesville, North Carolina region unites a developing industrialized area with more than 180

industrial operations, including plastics, transportation equipment, metal working, and distribution.  Our

diverse tracts of land and low taxes encourage expansion and have prompted a number of industrial

companies and manufacturers to relocate to our region and we were proud to have Yanjan USA LLC join

us and add to the employment base of our region.   

To ensure that the jobs Yanjan brought to Statesville stay here, we would encourage the office

of the U.S. Trade Representative to grant Yanjan’s product exclusion request, to help Yanjan’s growing

business continue to thrive here in Statesville, North Carolina.  

       

Sincerely,        

Russ Rogerson      

President/CEO      

Statesville Regional Development  

(704) 871‐0062 Ext. 202

russ@statesvilleregion.com  
Exhibit C
Shaping drum system:

Length: 4000mm

Width: 1250mm

Height: 1300mm