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John Brew

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John Brew is the former chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.

John has extensive experience in import and export trade regulation, collaborating with corporations, trade associations, foreign governments, and nongovernmental organizations on customs administration, enforcement, compliance litigation, legislation, and policy matters. He represents clients in proceedings at the administrative and judicial levels as well as before Congress and the international bureaucracies that handle customs and trade matters. John advises clients on all substantive import regulatory issues handled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, such as classification, valuation, origin, marking, tariff preference programs, other agency regulations, admissibility, customs brokerage, Section 321, drawback, foreign trade zones, duty recovery programs, import restrictions, quotas, audits, prior disclosures, penalties, investigations, Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and trade compliance programs, importations under bond, the Jones Act, and vessel repairs.

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Register here to join us for one or both of these timely sessions.

February 4th – Trump Administration and Trade: Tariffs and Customs

February 11th – Trump Administration and Trade: Sanctions, Export Controls, Investment Restrictions, and Global Mobility

February 4, 2025, 12:00 p.m. – 12:45 p.m. ET
Trump Administration and Trade: Tariffs and Customs
Join Crowell’s International Trade and Government Affairs attorneys as they explore the anticipated Trump Administration’s tariffs and their implications along with new customs and trade remedy issues facing importers. Trump’s first administration saw significant new duties, including Section 201, 232, and 301 tariffs, which resulted in importers scrambling to reconfigure supply chains to minimize duties and secure alternative sources for imported goods. This session will provide essential insights and actionable strategies for companies to prepare for the immediate impact of the duties and identify longer term approaches for stable supply lines. In this webinar, our attorneys will discuss the following topics:Continue Reading Register Now! Trump Administration and Trade: Two-Part Webinar Set

On October 4, 2021, United States Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai delivered a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) detailing the Biden Administration’s new strategy for managing U.S.-China trade relations. Tai announced that the USTR will restart a targeted tariff exclusion process for Section 301 duties. Today (October 6) the USTR published a request for comments regarding possible reinstatement of certain exclusions to the Section 301 tariffs visible here. The exclusion process covers 549 products for which the prior Administration granted exclusion extensions, most of which expired on December 31, 2020.  See here for the list of covered products   The USTR is seeking public comments on whether or not to further extend the exclusion from 301 tariffs on these products.  The comment period opens October 12 and closes December 1 and 11:59 PM EST and can be accessed here.

The factors the USTR will consider in deciding whether or not to extend exclusions are similar to those considered in the prior Administration, including:

  1. whether the particular product is available in the United States or other countries;
  2. how changes in the global supply chain since September 2018 or any other relevant industry developments have impacted product availability;
  3. the efforts the importers or U.S. purchases have undertaken since September 2018 to source the product from the U.S. or other countries; and
  4. domestic capacity for production in the United States.

The USTR is also considering additional criteria for granting exclusions, such as whether or not reinstating the exclusion will impact or result in severe economic harm to the commenter or to other U.S. interests, such as small businesses, employment, manufacturing, or critical supply chains. It remains to be seen if other criteria, possibly relevant to broader administration goals such as promoting efforts to advance climate change, might also be considered.

If the USTR reinstates exclusions, then such exclusions would be reinstated retroactively. Importers may seek 301 duty refunds on all subject entries that are not “liquidated” by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the time the importer makes a claim for a refund with CBP.  CBP typically liquidates an entry 314 days after entry, so the sooner importers file for and receive an exclusion extension the greater the potential duty refunds.
Continue Reading U.S.-China Trade: USTR Restarts Tariff Exclusion Process for Section 301 Duties

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) came into force on July 1, 2020. Included in the USMCA are stronger labor provisions Congressional Democrats demanded, with the support of the Trump Administration, that were approved on a bipartisan basis during consideration of the USMCA implementing legislation in late 2019. The stronger labor provisions helped secure the support…

On January 31, 2020, the Trump administration issued an executive order cracking down on U.S. businesses that import directly or facilitate the import of counterfeit or pirated goods, illegal narcotics and other contraband. The order, entitled “Ensuring Safe & Lawful E-Commerce for US Consumers, Business, Government Supply Chains and Intellectual Property Rights,” directs…

The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) process is administered by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). Under the MTB process, U.S. importers may petition for duty-free or reduced-duty treatment of certain imported products by submitting an MTB petition to the ITC. The ITC has indicated that it will open its portal and begin accepting MTB petitions…

On August 27, 2019, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) published a final rule regarding the procedures for the preparation and filing of Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) petitions and public comments. The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) Act temporarily reduces or eliminates import duties on specified raw materials and intermediate products used in manufacturing that are…