David Cohen

Member, DC Bar

202-730-4955

dcohen@strtrade.com

(305) 989

PUBLIC VERSION

September	20,	2018

Via www.regulations.gov

The Honorable Robert E. Lighthizer

United States Trade Representative

Office of the United States Trade Representative

600 17th Street Northwest

Washington, D.C. 20508

Subject: Docket Number USTR-2018-0025

Request for Exclusion of Portable Electrical Colorimeters 

(9027.50.4015) from the Determination of Action Pursuant to 

Section 301: China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to 

Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation

Dear Ambassador Lighthizer, 

On behalf of Hach Company (hereinafter “Hach”), we are submitting written 

comments in response to Docket No. USTR-2018-0025, Notice of Determination and 

Request for Public Comment Concerning Proposed Determination of Action Pursuant to 

Section 301; China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, 

Intellectual property and Innovation.1 Hach appreciates the opportunity to present this 

request for an exclusion from your decision to place a 25-percent additional tariff on certain 

imports from China, pursuant to your findings of the Investigation into China’s Acts, 

Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and 

Innovation Under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (“U.S.T.R Investigation”). While 

 1 Procedures to Consider Requests for Exclusion of Particular Products from the Determination of Action 

Pursuant to Section 301: China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual 

Property, and Innovation, 83 Fed. Reg. 32,181 (USTR July 11, 2018).
United	States	Trade	Representative

The	Hach	Company

September	20,	2018

Page	2

we understand and fully support the Administration’s goal of establishing an equitable and 

mutually rewarding trading relationship with China, we respectfully request that the 

following product not be subject to the 25% ad valorem duty:

Product Name HTS Number 

(10-digit)

Product Description Example Image

Portable 

Electrical 

Colorimeters

9027.50.4015 Multi-parameter, handheld 

electrical colorimeters used 

for chemical analysis 

(provided for in 9027.50.40)

These products should not be subject to the Section 301 tariff because applying 

additional tariffs will not remedy the trade inequities identified in the in the U.S.T.R. 

Investigation nor stop the damaging industrial practices of the Chinese government. 

Instead, imposing the tariffs will have a significant negative impact on Hach’s operations

in the United States and elsewhere and reduce its ability to continue its long time and 

significant investment in higher paying U.S. jobs and production facilities, as well as 

continued research and development. Moreover, the tariffs would adversely impact both 

Hach’s U.S. customers, millions of Americans, and others worldwide who benefit from 

access to clean water, a critical and precious resource. 

Background

Hach is headquartered in Loveland, Colorado, and has a US-based staff of over 

1,400 associates and contingent workers with significant manufacturing facilities in both 

Loveland and Ames, Iowa. For 80 years, Hach has been dedicated to its mission of ensuring 

water quality for people in the U.S. and around the world. Hach makes instruments and 

reagents to analyze a wide array of water quality parameters that are critical for process 
United	States	Trade	Representative

The	Hach	Company

September	20,	2018

Page	3

control and environmental purposes. Today, Hach products can be found across the entire 

globe and serve industries ranging from municipal drinking and wastewater to food, 

beverage and power, and every other category that touches water. 

Discussion

The Section 301 duties should not be imposed on Hach’s products for several 

reasons. First, China’s annual exports of items like portable electrical colorimeters are so 

miniscule that any reduction in production would have no meaningful impact on China. 

Additionally, the stable and widely used technology used by Hach’s Wholly ForeignOwned Enterprise (“WFOE”) in China to manufacture portable electrical colorimeters is 

of no interest to the Chinese government. Furthermore, imposing the tariffs on portable 

electrical colorimeters will adversely impact Hach’s operations and reduce its ability to 

continue U.S. investment in higher paying jobs, facilities, and research and development. 

Finally, humanitarian products have historically been exempted from trade sanctions on 

import. As Hach’s products serve a fundamentally humanitarian purpose, helping ensure 

clean water, we respectfully request portable electrical colorimeters be excluded from the 

Section 301 tariffs. 

1. Imposing the additional tariffs will have no impact on China; the products are made with 

stable and widely-used technology that is not contemplated for acquisition by the Chinese 

government, as evidenced by the “Made in China 2025” report. 

China is one of the world’s largest export economies.2 For example, China’s export 

value for 2016 was $2.2T.3 Its top exports were Computers, Broadcasting Equipment, 

Telephones, and Integrated Circuits. 4 During that same time, items classified under 

9027.50 of the Harmonized Tariff represented approximately 0.006% of Chinese exports

to the U.S.5 Therefore, there is no reason to believe that the Section 301 tariffs would have 

 2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Observatory of Economic Complexity, available at:

https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/chn/

3 Id.

4 Id.

5 Id., available at: https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/chn/show/902750/2016/. 
United	States	Trade	Representative

The	Hach	Company

September	20,	2018

Page	4

any impact on China, even if every company like Hach that currently produced portable 

electrical colorimeters in China moved that production elsewhere. 

Additionally, portable electrical colorimeters represent relatively older and stable 

technology that is largely no longer patented. As observed in the U.S.T.R. Investigation 

report, China is targeting intelligent production lines and manufacturing equipment like 

high-end, digitally controlled machine tools or robots. While portable electrical 

colorimeters are used as part of Hach’s many “cutting edge” advancements in ensuring 

water quality, the technology incorporated into the product is simply not the kind of 

“breakthrough” technology that is sought by China. Nowhere in the “Made in China 2025” 

report is there either a general or Hach-specific reference to water analytics technology. 

Furthermore, we are aware of no efforts by the Chinese government, or by Chinese 

companies, to steal this technology and believe there is no incentive for China to attempt 

to control it. The facility in which Hach’s portable electrical colorimeters are made in 

China, Shanghai Shilu Instrument Co., Ltd., is a WFOE. This allows Hach to retain 

complete control over intellectual property and manufacturing processes. We also note that 

the U.S.T.R. Investigation report recognized WFOE as the business model least vulnerable 

to state coercion of any kind, including forced technology transfer, which was one of the 

significant Chinese industrial abuses that the Section 301 tariffs were intended to remedy.

2. The additional Section 301 tariffs will cause considerable harm to Hach’s business without 

commensurate benefits to related American industries.

A 25-percent additional duty on Hach products will have a severe impact on its

business and will require Hach to re-evaluate its operational model. The Annex sets forth

the annual quantity and value imported by Hach that would be subject to Section 301 tariffs

for the past three years. As noted above, portable electrical colorimeters are exclusively 

manufactured and assembled at Hach’s WFOE Shilu facility. Hach has invested heavily in 

that facility, both as a production site and as a platform for distributing Hach product. 

Moving production and raw material sourcing out of China involves extraordinary 

cost, both in terms of the transition and in lost savings that producing in China provides. 
United	States	Trade	Representative

The	Hach	Company

September	20,	2018

Page	5

These savings can be, and have historically been, invested back into Hach and its 

operations worldwide, including the United States. 

Moreover, we do not believe that the costs associated with the additional Section 

301 tariffs can be mitigated through price increases due to the highly competitive nature of 

the market for its products. Few companies can absorb a 25% increase in costs without 

reductions in other expenditures, such as U.S. investment and employment. The 

competitive cost-basis in China, together with revenues that Hach earns through sales of 

its products produced there, has helped Hach to compete better globally and invest more in 

the U.S., including in higher tech and higher paying jobs, as well as research and 

development. In the past year, due in no small part to these benefits of production in China, 

Hach was able to expand its Loveland, Colorado headquarters by building and opening a 

$25 million, 90,000 square foot research and development center. Similar future 

investment activity will be less feasible if Hach faces higher operating costs and additional 

expenditures associated with identifying and shifting an established global supply chain, 

not to mention the loss of business associated with manufacturing delays and increased 

costs. Furthermore, moving production out of China will cause Hach to lose the advantages 

of its access to the Chinese market that it currently enjoys. This access not only allows 

Hach to be competitive in the U.S. market, it makes the company more competitive 

globally, which helps create more opportunities for Hach investment and employment in 

the United States.

3. Hach products imported from China serve a fundamentally humanitarian purpose, 

ensuring clean waterfor millions of Americans and others worldwide, and therefore should 

not be subject to the Section 301 tariffs.

The impact on Hach will have a ripple effect that will reach its customers, millions 

of Americans, and others worldwide who benefit from Hach’s products and technology 

aimed at ensuring water quality. Historically, humanitarian products are exempt from trade 

sanctions on imported goods. According to Section 7202 of the Trade Sanctions Reform 

and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, the President’s ability to impose unilateral sanctions 

– defined as “prohibition, restriction or condition on exports” – is limited when it concerns 
United	States	Trade	Representative

The	Hach	Company

September	20,	2018

Page	6

medical or humanitarian aid. To date, the tariff exclusions under Section 301 made by the 

U.S. Trade Representative have been consistent with this policy. For example, in its initial 

phase of consideration, USTR excluded 516 HTS lines from Section 301 tariffs. Out of 

those exclusions, thirty-five were in Chapter 90, and of those thirty-five, twenty-one of 

those HTS lines were medical or dental related. While Hach may be a water analytics 

manufacturer, its mission is fundamentally a humanitarian one – providing reliable 

solutions to ensure clean water.

For example, colorimeters are commonly used to test the concentration of 

disinfectants like chlorine used in drinking water. Colorimeters can also measure a variety 

of parameters such as fluoride, nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, and phosphorous. Determining the 

correct level of these elements in drinking water is critical to ensure public health and 

safety. Portable electrical colorimeters should therefore be excluded from Section 301 

tariffs for humanitarian reasons. 

Furthermore, impediments to efficient manufacturing and delivery of water quality 

monitoring equipment like portable electrical colorimeters will inhibit Hach’s ability to 

innovate in support of its customers. This will directly harm Hach’s customer base and the 

everyday Americans they serve. Many U.S. municipal drinking water systems use Hach 

products to monitor multiple water quality parameters. Maintaining proper water quality 

parameter levels helps promote public safety in drinking water applications and keeps costs 

lower by promoting longevity of capital equipment installed in U.S. industrial facilities. 

Additionally, Hach products are used in critical U.S. infrastructure projects, for 

example, with the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District on enhancing the water 

treatment processes for ammonia and nitrate removal, filtration, and disinfection, to meet 

the strict permit conditions. The Sacramento project is set to span over ten years, and Hach 

has pledged continuous engagement and support on every level. Hach is also cooperating 

with the City of Houston on the Northeast Water Purification Plant Expansion Project, 

worth $1.35 billion. These are the kind of customers that could be directly impacted if 

Hach’s products, like portable electrical colorimeters, are subject to the newly-imposed 

25% tariff. Imposing tariffs on these items will cause economic harm to individual clients 
United	States	Trade	Representative

The	Hach	Company

September	20,	2018

Page	7

as municipalities and millions of Americans who rely on Hach to help ensure clean water 

and keep municipal water and wastewater facility equipment available and affordable. 

CBP’s Ability to Administer the Exclusion

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) can easily administer the exclusion. 

The products are described under HTS subheading 9027.50.4015 as chemical analysis 

instruments and apparatus using optical radiations and more specifically as multiparameter, handheld electrical colorimeters used for chemical analysis (provided for in 

9027.50.40). As they are Hach products, they are imported by Hach. In addition, the 

manufacturer identification (MID) codes that are part of existing customs entry 

declarations would help ensure that only products produced by Hach’s Shilu WFOE were 

entered under the requested exclusion. While the product is not defined by the importer or 

manufacturer, we believe that these factors aid CBP in the administration of this exclusion. 

Because these products are only made by Hach’s related manufacturer and Hach is the only 

importer, the product description, classification, MID, coupled with importer are relevant 

factors that will assist CBP to administer this exclusion. 

Conclusion

In closing, thank you for your attention and consideration. We appreciate the 

administration’s efforts to address China’s trade policies and damaging industrial practices

and we want to emphasize that portable electrical colorimeters are not subject to those 

practices. We therefore respectfully request that USTR exclude portable electrical 

colorimeters as described above from the list of goods subject to the Section 301 tariffs.

Sincerely,

_________________________________

David E. Cohen

Enclosure
PUBLIC	VERSION	- BUSINESS	CONFIDENTIAL	INFORMATION DELETED

ANNEX: ANNUAL QUANTITY AND VALUE OF IMPORTS

Product Description Tariff Code 

(HTS)

2015 QTY 

(est)

2015 

Import 

Value (est)

2016 QTY 

(est)

2016 

Import 

Value (est)

2017 QTY 

Instruments 

(Actual)

2017 Import 

Value (Actual)

Multi-parameter, 

handheld electrical 

colorimeters used for 

chemical analysis 

(provided for in 

9027.50.40)

9027.50.4015 [ ] *

 * Business Confidential information deleted. This information would not customarily be released to the public, and disclosure of the 

information would endanger trade secrets or profitability.