On October 15, 2024, the Office of the United States Representative (“USTR”) announced a new process for interested parties to request temporary exclusion from Section 301 duties on certain Chinese-origin goods.  The new exclusion process is limited, but key for stakeholders with a nexus to domestic manufacturing in the United States.  Exclusions may apply for machinery used in domestic manufacturing and classified within a discreet list of over 300 subheadings under chapters 84 and 85 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, which can be found in a preceding Federal Register Notice issued by the agency on September 18, found here (see Annex E). 

The portal to request exclusions will remain open until March 31, 2025, allowing a long window for importers, trade associations and other interested parties to participate in the process.  Once a request for exclusion is posted to the USTR’s online portal, interested parties will have an opportunity to respond, in support of or opposition to, the requested exclusion within 30 days.  In turn, the requestor will have an opportunity to reply to any response within 15 days after posting (or 15 days after the closing of the 30-day response period).  The USTR will accept exclusions on a rolling basis and periodically announce decisions.  Encouraging quick action by interested party requestors – any granted exclusion will be effective beginning the date of the publication of the exclusion in the Federal Register and will extend through May 31, 2025.  Key themes to highlight in each exclusion request include specificity in the equipment and its role in domestic manufacturing, whether the equipment can be (and has been) sourced from the United States or third countries, and whether the equipment could be strategically important to China.

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Photo of John Brew John Brew

John Brew is the co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He has extensive experience in import and export trade regulation, and he regularly advises corporations, trade associations, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations…

John Brew is the co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He has extensive experience in import and export trade regulation, and he regularly advises corporations, trade associations, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations on matters involving customs administration, enforcement, compliance, litigation, legislation and policy.

John 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. He 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, import restrictions, quotas, drawback, audits, prior disclosures, penalties, investigations, Importer Self Assessment and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism programs, importations under bond, the Jones Act, vessel repairs, and foreign trade zone matters.

Andrew J. Schlegel

Andrew Schlegel is an international trade analyst III in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office. He provides practice support to the International Trade Group on import regulatory matters pending before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and U.S. Customs and Border

Andrew Schlegel is an international trade analyst III in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office. He provides practice support to the International Trade Group on import regulatory matters pending before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). He works closely with attorneys developing courses of action for clients impacted by investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Andrew also supports unfair trade investigations, including antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations, sunset reviews, and changed circumstance reviews before the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission (ITC).

Prior to joining Crowell & Moring, Andrew worked as an intern at SAP’s Government Affairs Business Development Team in Berlin, Germany. There, he analyzed the effects of regulatory changes on SAP business operations and expansion opportunities. Before this, he completed an internship at the International Trade Administration’s Office of Energy and Environmental Industries. While there, he developed the U.S. Energy Trade Dashboard, an interactive data visualization tool for use by professionals and researchers to analyze how energy supply chains have developed.