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. 

 Public Document 

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

 

 The tunnel boring machine (TBM) being procured is for construction of the Northeast 

Ohio Regional Sewer District’s (NEORSD) Westerly Storage Tunnel project. This tunnel will 

store untreated, combined sewer overflows and ultimately convey said untreated raw sewerage to 

the NEORSD’s Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant for treatment and discharge to Lake Erie. 

This system will prevent the discharge of nearly 4 billion gallons of sewer overflows annually 

into the Great Lakes water system. 

 The project TBM in question is a Lovsuns model RMP336SE single-shield, drum type, 

mono-directional, self-propelled rock machine that operates in the open (non-pressurized) mode 

only. It is powered by ten-(10) 350kw electric motors. It is 28.0 feet in diameter, will excavate 

rock in the Chagrin Valley shale formation and erect a 25.0 feet internal diameter precast 

concrete segment final liner. It is constructed of high strength steel with electric and hydraulic 

power and propulsion systems. (See attachment) 

3. 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/ 

8430310080 

4. Requestor Information: 

 Requestor Name (Last, First): Backers, Timothy

 Organization Name: Jay Dee Obayashi JV

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

 Requestor Representative: Leslie Glick, Butzel Long 
 2 

5. Requestor's relationship to the product: 

 

 Jay Dee Obayashi JV is the purchaser of this tunnel boring machine. 

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

This submission contains one drawing as an attachment. 

7. Please indicate whether any additional attachment contains business confidential 

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

 The additional attachment is a public document. 

8. Is this product, or a comparable product, available from sources in the United States? 

This product is not available from sources in the United States. 

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

 This equipment is potentially available from a manufacturer based in Germany, however 

their manufacturing facilities are also located in China similarly to Lovsuns. 

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: N/A 2017 Quantity: N/A 

2016 Value: N/A 2016 Quantity: N/A 

 

2015 Value: N/A 2015 Quantity: N/A 

11. Please provide information in support your request, taking account of the instructions 

provided in Section B of the Federal Register notice (note: text entered below can extend 

beyond the apparent size of this box). 

A 25% tariff ($2,225,000 US) would make this and future projects considerably more 

expensive, make our company less competitive and could impact company jobs at our 

headquarters in Livonia, Michigan as well as trade people, subcontractors and service suppliers 

in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. These types of projects are lump sum, fixed price contracts 

with no way of recovering these types of unanticipated costs. Project schedule, profitability and 

loss of customers and employees would be negatively impacted in a serious manner. It will also 

impact our company’s reputation and ability to bid on future project of similar size and nature. 

 To our knowledge, this product is not a part of the “Made in China 2025” program or any 

other Chinese industrial program. 

CERTIFICATION 

I hereby certify that the information provided is complete and correct to the best of my knowledge 

Fo ay Dee Obayashi JV