The US quartz surface products safeguard tariff-rate quota is now in force for covered goods entered or withdrawn for consumption on or after 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday, August 15, 2026. President Trump issued the July 31, 2026 proclamation, To Facilitate Positive Adjustment to Competition from Imports of Quartz Surface Products, as a four-year Section 201 safeguard.
The measure runs through August 14, 2030. It changes the cost and timing calculation for importers of covered engineered-quartz products, including buyers that source from India and Vietnam, the two largest sources of engineered quartz to the United States. Both origins are covered rather than exempt.
Scope and effective period
The safeguard takes the form of a tariff-rate quota, or TRQ. The first year begins on August 15, 2026 and the safeguard ends after four years on August 14, 2030. The proclamation implements the earlier ITC recommendation.
For suppliers and importers, the operational distinction is whether a shipment enters within the quarterly quota or after the quota has been filled. The measure applies to quartz surface products from covered origins, while the origin exemptions and conditional developing-country exemption must be checked against the applicable entry.
Quarterly quota and duty schedule
The quota is 3,251,606 square meters per quarter, approximately 13.006 million square meters in year one and roughly 140 million square feet per year. The quarterly periods are fixed rather than aligned to a calendar quarter.
- August 15 to November 14
- November 15 to February 13
- February 14 to May 15
- May 16 to August 14
Year-by-year duty rates
- Year 1: 25% in-quota and 50% over-quota.
- Year 2: 23% in-quota and 49% over-quota.
- Year 3: 21% in-quota and 48% over-quota.
- Year 4: 19% in-quota and 47% over-quota.
For quartz-containing glass products that were previously subject to a 5% duty, the total duty now falls in a 30–55% range. That change makes product classification and entry timing material to a landed-cost review.
Covered and exempt origins
Covered origins include China, India, Malaysia, Spain, Italy, Turkey and Vietnam. Canada, Mexico, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, certain US free-trade partners and select developing-country suppliers are exempt, although the developing-country exemption is conditional.
Importers reviewing quartz slabs should separate source-country qualification from the commercial availability of a slab program. A source that is exempt from the safeguard may still require its own commercial and compliance review. A natural-stone program such as natural granite as an unaffected natural-stone alternative is outside this quartz safeguard framework.
What it means for buyers
Buyers should plan purchase orders against the stated quota periods rather than treat the safeguard as a single annual duty. Contracts can identify the responsible party for quota availability, entry timing and any over-quota duty exposure. Procurement teams can also compare covered quartz programs with exempt-origin programs and with natural-stone alternatives where the project specification permits them.
For distributors and fabricators, the first-year 25% in-quota and 50% over-quota rates make a clear landed-cost assumption necessary before quoting. The annual step-down schedule is known, but it does not remove the need to determine whether a specific shipment will enter within the relevant quarterly quota.
The safeguard separates the question of whether a product is covered from the question of which rate applies at entry. That distinction matters for quotations built around quartz surface products from China, India, Malaysia, Spain, Italy, Turkey or Vietnam. A buyer can keep the product description, origin and intended entry period together in the same review, then distinguish an in-quota assumption from an over-quota assumption. The stated treatment of exempt countries and the separate treatment for specified HS subheadings give procurement teams defined points to verify against each order.
Material selection can remain a separate commercial decision. Where a project specification permits it, buyers can compare covered quartz surface products with an exempt-origin program or with natural granite as an unaffected natural-stone alternative. This does not change the safeguard treatment of the covered product; it gives the buyer a documented way to discuss material, origin and entry-period assumptions before a price is fixed.
