Photo of 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 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.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released new guidance following the announcement of new 200% tariffs on Russian aluminum.  CBP’s guidance outlines new reporting requirements for all imports of aluminum and aluminum derivative products, regardless of the country of origin.

The new reporting requirements follow the issuance of Presidential Proclamation 10522.  Under Proclamation 10522, any

In Island Industries Inc. v. Sigma Corp., the Ninth Circuit is set to address whether federal district courts have subject matter jurisdiction over customs fraud cases in actions initiated under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (“FCA”). The FCA allows private parties (“relators”) to file suits on behalf of the government

At the end of December 2022, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023.  This Act contains a number of discretionary spending acts for different Departments, including the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2023.  Per the Senate Committee on Appropriation, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriation Act for FY 2023 includes a total

Congress failed to pass much needed and anticipated trade legislation last session. Issues the new House and Senate must face include: the extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance, the future of the Trade Promotion Authority, renewed Generalized System of Preferences, and a new Miscellaneous Tariff Bill.

The Future of the Trade Adjustment Assistance and Trade

Washington, D.C. – January 23, 2023: Jason Prince, former chief counsel to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined Crowell & Moring and will advise financial institutions and other companies on the growing list of sanctions and export controls on Russia and other targeted nations and parties.

Prince brings in-depth experience

This Tuesday, January 17, marked the close for the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR’s) comment period for its statutory 4-year review of tariffs imposed on Chinese goods under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. To-date, the Biden Administration has retained Section 301 tariffs on over $300 billion worth of imports

The U.S. Court of International Trade (“CIT”) issued a final opinion in Virtus Nutrition LLC’s (“Virtus”) challenge to Customs and Border Protection’s (“CBP”) detention of Malaysian palm oil imports, rejecting Vitrus’ request that the CIT confirm the importer’s right to re-export the shipment.  Please see link to case [here].      

CBP detained the shipment

On December 16th, the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) extended 352 exclusions which exclude certain products from the additional duties caused by the Section 301 actions taken against imports from China. These exclusions were scheduled to expire on December 31, 2022 but will now extend until September 30, 2023. USTR reinstated these 352

On Saturday, November 12, 2022, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Chris Magnus, resigned following tensions between Magnus and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over how to handle increasing numbers of migrant people at the southern border. DHS officials have reported that Secretary Mayorkas informed Magnus on Wednesday that he should either