Section 301 vs Section 232 vs the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill: What Actually Applies to You

TL;DR

Section 301 (USTR — Trade Act of 1974) targets specific trading-partner practices (most famously PRC IP/tech transfer); Section 232 (BIS — Trade Expansion Act of 1962) targets national-security-related commodity imports; MTB (Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, USITC) is a temporary rate suspension mechanism.

301 and 232 duties stack — they are not alternatives. A Chinese-origin steel derivative can carry MFN + 301 + 232 simultaneously.

MTB is affirmative relief: an importer petitions USITC/Congress for a suspension or reduction of a specific HTS rate. It requires a defensible "no domestic production" showing and a small enough revenue impact.

The 301 exclusion process (USTR portal) is separate from the 232 exclusion process (BIS portal) — different agencies, different forms, different rules. Do not confuse them.

For duty planning: model the full stack per SKU first, then work each layer separately — MTB for MFN reduction, 301 exclusion for USTR duty, 232 exclusion for BIS duty, First Sale for the underlying value.

Key stat: USTR's 301 exclusion process, BIS's 232 exclusion process, and Congress's MTB cycle each run on independent calendars — a full duty-mitigation program on a single SKU can require three simultaneous filings with three different agencies and three different comment windows.

A plain-English map of the three tariff levers your broker keeps mixing up — and what each one actually costs you.

The three-line invoice nobody explains

Pull up a recent customs entry summary. If you import anything with steel content from China, you'll probably see four separate duty lines: the base Most Favored Nation (MFN) rate, a Section 301 line, maybe a Section 232 line, and possibly something from whatever the White House proclaimed last month under a different statute entirely.

Ask your broker what each one is for and you'll get three different acronyms delivered with the same flat confidence, like they're all the same kind of thing. They're not. One is a trade-remedy statute aimed at unfair practices by a specific country. One is a national-security statute that doesn't care where the metal came from, only what it's made of. One isn't a tariff at all — it's Congress voting to waive duties on stuff nobody makes here anyway.

Confusing these costs you money in both directions. Treat a 232 duty like a 301 duty and file for drawback you're not entitled to — CBP will claw it back with interest. Assume your product doesn't need an MTB check because "that's the input-suspension one, not my problem" and you might be sitting on a legitimate refund opportunity if renewal ever moves. Miss a 301 exclusion window because your broker filed it under the wrong program and you overpay for a year.

This article is the one comparison document that puts all three side by side, tells you the actual legal mechanics, and — because it's 2026 and this landscape moves monthly — tells you where to go verify the numbers instead of trusting a rate I typed six months before you're reading this.

The 60-Second Map

Here's the entire article in one table. Everything after this is unpacking each row.

| | Section 301 | Section 232 | MTB | |---|---|---|---| | Legal authority | Trade Act of 1974, §301 (19 U.S.C. § 2411) | Trade Expansion Act of 1962, §232 (19 U.S.C. § 1862) | American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016 | | Who administers it | U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) | Department of Commerce (via BIS) investigates; President proclaims | U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) reviews petitions; Congress enacts | | Trigger | Unfair, unreasonable, or discriminatory foreign trade practices | Threat to U.S. national security from imports of a specific article | A U.S. company petitions because an input isn't made domestically in sufficient quantity | | What it targets | A specific trading partner's practices (in practice, almost entirely China since 2018) | A specific product category regardless of country of origin | Specific tariff lines/inputs, regardless of country of origin | | Direction of duty | Duties go UP | Duties go UP | Duties go DOWN (suspended or reduced) | | Typical process time | Investigation, then proclamation; changes can move in weeks once decided | Investigation (up to 270 days by statute) then presidential decision | Multi-year: petition, USITC vetting, then Congress has to actually pass a bill | | Country-specific? | Yes — tied to the offending country's practices | No — applies by product/HTS regardless of origin | No — applies by tariff line regardless of origin | | Current status (verify) | Active, layered actions since 2018, expanded after 2024 four-year review | Active since 2018, expanded via ongoing "derivatives" inclusions | Lapsed since December 31, 2020; renewal stalled in Congress | | Drawback eligible? | Yes | No (per Presidential Proclamation 9704 and successors) | N/A — it's a suspension, not a duty, so there's nothing to draw back |

Three different tools, three different logics. 301 punishes a country. 232 protects an industry Commerce has deemed critical to national security, regardless of who's shipping the product. MTB isn't punitive or protective at all — it's Congress admitting "yeah, nobody makes this input here, stop taxing manufacturers for buying it abroad."

If you remember nothing else: 301 and 232 both raise your cost. MTB is the only one of the three that's supposed to lower it, and it's the one that's currently broken.

Section 301 Deep-Dive: The China Actions

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 gives USTR authority to investigate and respond to foreign trade practices that are "unjustifiable" or "unreasonable" and that burden U.S. commerce. It predates the China tariffs by four decades — the U.S. used 301 against Japan, the EU, and others long before 2018. But if you're an importer in 2026, "301" means one thing: the China tariff program that started with the Section 301 investigation into China's technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation practices, published by USTR in 2018.

That investigation produced four rounds of tariff lists, generally referred to as Lists 1 through 4A, phased in through 2018 and 2019. Rates across the lists have ranged from 7.5% to 25% depending on the list and product, though — and this matters — the exact rate on your specific HTS line depends on which list it landed on and whether it's been modified since. Don't trust a number you read in an old article. Pull the current rate from the Harmonized Tariff Schedule annex that USTR maintains, cross-referenced against your actual 10-digit HTS code.

The program was supposed to be reviewed after four years under the statute's sunset mechanics, and USTR ran that four-year review starting in 2022. The result, announced in 2024, wasn't a rollback — it was targeted increases on strategic categories: electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, semiconductors, solar cells, certain critical minerals, ship-to-shore cranes, and select medical products including syringes, needles, and personal protective equipment. Those increases were phased in over 2024 through 2026 on different timelines by category. If you import in any of these categories, do not assume the rate you paid last year is the rate you'll pay this year — check the current annex before you quote a customer or model a landed cost.

What 301 covers: goods classified under HTS codes that appear on the active exclusion-adjusted lists, where the country of origin is China. Origin matters here in a way it doesn't for 232 — if you shift production of the same product to Vietnam or Mexico, the China-specific 301 duty generally doesn't apply (though you need a legitimate substantial-transformation origin change, not a transshipment scheme — CBP actively polices this and penalties for evasion are severe).

What 301 doesn't cover: products not on the lists, and non-Chinese-origin goods, full stop — even if the goods are made by a Chinese-owned company operating a factory elsewhere. Origin is about where the last substantial transformation happened, not who owns the entity.

One more nuance worth knowing: 301 duties apply on top of the normal MFN duty rate for your product. They're additive, not a replacement rate. A product with a 0% MFN rate that's hit by a 25% List 3 duty still pays 25%, not 25% instead of some other baseline — you just don't have a baseline to subtract from.

Section 232 Deep-Dive: Steel, Aluminum, and "National Security"

Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 lets the President restrict imports — through tariffs, quotas, or other measures — of any article that Commerce determines, after investigation, "threatens to impair the national security" of the United States. That's a genuinely different legal theory than 301. It's not about whether a trading partner is playing fair. It's about whether the U.S. can maintain a domestic industrial base for a category Commerce considers strategically essential, independent of who's selling it to you.

The current-era 232 program started with the 2018 steel and aluminum investigations, which resulted in tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from most countries (with various country-specific carve-outs, quotas, and negotiated arrangements that have shifted repeatedly since). Unlike 301, these tariffs apply based on the product and its content, not the shipping country's trade practices — a steel article from Germany and a steel article from Vietnam face the same underlying logic, even if country-specific deals produce different effective rates.

The part that trips up importers who think they're "not in the steel business": derivatives. Commerce and BIS have run an ongoing inclusions process that expands 232 coverage to downstream products that merely contain steel or aluminum as a component — furniture with steel frames, appliances with aluminum housings, auto parts, and a long and growing list of manufactured goods. If your product isn't raw steel or aluminum but has steel or aluminum content, you may still owe 232 duty on the value of that content, assessed through a content-based methodology rather than the full entered value in many cases. This is where a lot of SMB importers get blindsided — they assumed 232 was a raw-materials tariff and didn't realize their finished good got added to a derivatives list eighteen months after they set their pricing.

The inclusions process itself is worth understanding mechanically: any interested party can petition BIS to add a specific product to the derivatives list, and BIS runs a public comment process before deciding. This means the list is not static — it has grown steadily since 2018 and continues to grow. If you import manufactured goods with metal content, checking whether your specific HTS code has been added to a 232 derivatives list needs to be a recurring task, not a one-time lookup.

Section 232's national-security rationale is also why it has proven more durable across changes in administration than trade-remedy tariffs tend to be — a national security determination is harder to politically walk back than a trade-practices finding, and every administration since 2018 has kept the program running in some form, even while adjusting specific country arrangements. More on why that durability matters in the litigation section below.

MTB Deep-Dive: Duty Suspensions and the Awkward Lapse

The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill is the one program in this article that's actually good news when it works — and currently doesn't work.

Mechanically, the MTB is a process, not a single law. It runs under the framework established by the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016, which created a standing petition cycle so Congress didn't have to legislate ad hoc duty suspensions one lobbyist visit at a time. Here's how the cycle is supposed to run: U.S. companies petition USITC to temporarily suspend or reduce duties on specific inputs — usually raw materials, chemicals, or components — that aren't produced domestically in commercially significant quantities, or where no domestic producer objects to the suspension. USITC vets the petitions, checks for domestic opposition, and reports a recommended list to Congress. Congress then has to actually pass a bill enacting that list, at which point the suspensions take effect, typically for a few years, before the cycle repeats.

Read that last sentence again: Congress has to pass a bill. That's the failure point.

The most recent MTB — enacted under the 2016 process — covered duty suspensions running through December 31, 2020. When that expired, importers who'd been paying reduced or zero duty on thousands of specific tariff lines went back to paying full MFN rate (plus any applicable 301 or 232 duty, since those stack independently) starting January 1, 2021. A subsequent round of petitions went through the USITC process as designed — the Commission did its job — but the follow-on legislation to actually enact the new suspension list has not passed as of this writing. Renewal has been introduced and discussed in Congress multiple times without reaching passage.

What this means practically, going into 2026: if your product benefited from an MTB suspension before 2021, you are very likely paying full duty on it right now, and have been for years, unless something has changed between when I'm writing this and when you're reading it. This is exactly the kind of fact that expires — check USITC's MTB portal (usitc.gov) directly for the live status of renewal legislation before you make any decision based on this section.

What should you actually do about it, given the uncertainty?

Don't assume it's dead forever. MTB renewal has bipartisan manufacturer support historically — it's one of the few tariff mechanics that reliably has industry groups on both sides of the aisle lobbying for it, because it lowers costs for U.S. manufacturers buying inputs, not just importers reselling finished goods. Track the bill status, don't write it off.

Get petition-ready anyway. If you import an input with no significant domestic production, document that now: your supplier's specs, evidence of no domestic source, your import volumes and duty paid. If renewal legislation moves, the petition window tends to open and close fast, and USITC needs specific documentation, not a general complaint that duties are high.

Don't let a broker file for an MTB benefit that isn't currently law. This sounds obvious, but confusion between "this product used to qualify" and "this product currently qualifies" is common enough that CBP audit findings reference it.

How They Stack: A Worked Landed-Cost Example

This is where the theory turns into a number on your P&L. A single product can be subject to normal MFN duty, plus 301 (if Chinese-origin and on an active list), plus 232 (if it has qualifying steel or aluminum content), plus whatever the current administration has layered on through other statutory authorities that this article isn't going to try to enumerate because they change fast — as of the mid-2020s, that's included actions taken under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) for various country- and category-specific tariffs. Stacking rules between 232 and newer IEEPA-based actions have been addressed directly in specific presidential proclamations — sometimes exempting products already subject to 232 from an added IEEPA tariff, sometimes not. This is genuinely one of the fastest-moving parts of the whole system. Verify current stacking treatment for your specific HTS code before you finalize a landed-cost model; don't extrapolate from last quarter's invoice.

Here's a worked example using a hypothetical steel patio furniture set, Chinese-origin, entered value $10,000, to show how the arithmetic actually works when duties stack:

| Duty layer | Basis | Illustrative rate | Illustrative duty owed | |---|---|---|---| | Base MFN duty | Full entered value ($10,000) | 3.4% (example HTS rate) | $340 | | Section 301 (China, active list) | Full entered value ($10,000) | 25% (example — verify current list rate) | $2,500 | | Section 232 (steel derivative content) | Steel content value only, e.g. $4,000 of the $10,000 | 25% (example — verify current derivatives rate) | $1,000 | | Other current proclamation-based tariff, if applicable | Varies by proclamation | Varies — check for exemption if already 232-covered | Verify before assuming $0 or a rate | | Total illustrative duty | | | $3,840 on a $10,000 entry (38.4% effective) |

Every rate in that table is illustrative, not current law — the point is the structure, not the number. Notice three things that consistently surprise importers:

First, 301 is assessed on full entered value, while 232 on a derivative product is often assessed only on the value of the metal content, not the whole product — meaning the two duties use different bases even when they're stacked on the same entry line.

Second, the effective duty rate on a finished good can exceed 35-40% once you stack MFN + 301 + 232, which is a completely different cost structure than the "10% tariff" number that gets thrown around casually.

Third, none of this includes freight, insurance, brokerage fees, or Merchandise Processing Fee — this table is duty only. Your actual landed cost is higher still.

Build a model like this for your top SKUs and update it every time USTR, Commerce, or the White House makes an announcement. This is tedious. It's also the difference between quoting a customer accurately and eating a five-figure surprise at year-end reconciliation.

Exclusions and Relief, Compared

All three programs have relief valves, but they work nothing alike.

Section 301 exclusions have gone through multiple rounds since 2018. USTR opened exclusion request windows for each list, granted exclusions for specific product descriptions (not full HTS codes — the exclusion language can be narrower than the tariff line, which trips people up), and then had to decide repeatedly whether to extend, let lapse, or reinstate those exclusions. Some exclusions lapsed and were later reinstated for a further period; others expired for good. If you're relying on a 301 exclusion right now, don't assume it's permanent — check its actual expiration date on USTR's exclusion list, because these have historically been extended in short increments (sometimes months at a time), not multi-year grants.

Section 232 relief moved a different direction. Early on there was a formal product-exclusion request process for steel and aluminum, where companies could petition for exclusion based on the argument that a domestically produced substitute wasn't available in sufficient quantity or quality. That process was significantly curtailed and restructured over time, shifting more toward the inclusions process discussed above — meaning the operative question shifted from "can I get excluded" toward "am I about to get included as a new derivative." If you're hoping for a 232 exclusion, check the current mechanism directly at Commerce/BIS rather than assuming the original 2018-era process is still open in the same form.

MTB is itself the relief mechanism — there's no separate exclusion process layered on top of it, because the whole program is a duty suspension by design. The "exclusion" concept doesn't really apply; either your product made it onto an enacted MTB list or it didn't, and right now, as covered above, there's no active list at all because renewal hasn't passed.

The practical takeaway: 301 relief is a rolling, expiring, re-upped patchwork you have to actively track. 232 relief has shifted from petition-out toward watch-for-inclusion. MTB relief doesn't currently exist as a live option, only as a thing to prepare for.

Drawback and FTZ Treatment, Compared

This section alone is worth more than the time it takes to read it, because it's the part most brokers gloss over and it directly affects cash you can get back or protect from ever leaving.

Duty drawback lets you recover duties paid on imported merchandise that's subsequently exported or destroyed, under 19 U.S.C. § 1313. The question that matters here: which of your duty layers are actually eligible?

Section 301 duties are drawback-eligible. If you paid 301 duty on an import and later export that same merchandise (or a manufactured product that incorporates it, under manufacturing drawback rules) you can generally claim it back through the standard drawback process.

Section 232 duties are not drawback-eligible. This was made explicit in the presidential proclamations that established the steel and aluminum tariffs (Proclamation 9704 for steel and its aluminum counterpart), and it has held since. If your 232 duty is baked into a product that gets re-exported, don't build a pro forma assuming you'll claw it back — you won't.

That asymmetry alone changes how you should think about which products to source domestically versus import-and-re-export. A business model that leans on drawback recovery works fine for 301-heavy products and falls apart silently for 232-heavy ones if nobody flagged the difference before the deal was priced.

Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZs) add another lever, and again, the two programs don't behave the same way inside a zone. Merchandise admitted into an FTZ can generally be admitted in "privileged foreign" (PF) status, which locks in the duty rate and classification as of the date of admission into the zone — useful if you expect rates to rise later and want to lock in today's number, or conversely a reason to be careful about admitting inventory in PF status right before an exclusion or rate reduction you're expecting. For both 301 and 232, admitting goods into an FTZ doesn't itself eliminate the duty — you still owe it when the goods leave the zone for domestic consumption — but it does let you defer the duty, and if you re-export from the zone without ever entering U.S. commerce, you may avoid paying it in the first place, subject to the specific FTZ board rules and product-specific restrictions that have tightened for both 301 and 232 categories over time. This is genuinely worth a conversation with an FTZ-experienced broker or consultant if your volumes justify the zone's operating costs — it is not a DIY move.

MTB has no FTZ-specific wrinkle worth flagging here, because when it's active it's a rate suspension applied at entry, not a program with its own zone mechanics.

Litigation and Political Risk

Section 301 has been through serious litigation. Thousands of importers challenged the List 3 and List 4A tariffs at the U.S. Court of International Trade, arguing USTR exceeded its statutory authority and violated procedural requirements in how it modified the tariff action after the initial investigation. That litigation ran for years, and the outcome for most plaintiffs did not result in the broad refund some importers had hoped for — but it's a live demonstration of a structural fact: 301 tariffs, being trade-remedy actions tied to an investigation and subject to judicial review of the agency's process, carry real litigation exposure that can eventually affect deposits already paid. If your company was part of that or a similar litigation track, keep your entry records straight — refund mechanics for prevailing claims depend on having preserved your protest rights and entry numbers.

Section 232's national-security basis has made it comparatively litigation-resistant. Courts have historically given the executive branch wide deference on national-security determinations, and challenges to the underlying 232 authority have not succeeded in unwinding the program the way some 301 challenges targeted specific procedural steps. This is part of why 232 has proven durable across different administrations with different trade philosophies — it survives changes in who's in the White House in a way that a politically negotiated trade-practices tariff doesn't necessarily.

The practical risk framing for you as an importer: 301 exposure is more likely to shift with trade negotiations and legal challenges — meaning both upside surprise (an exclusion, a negotiated reduction) and downside surprise (a list expansion) are plausible on a relatively short timeline. 232 exposure tends to move more slowly and more permanently — once a derivative category is added, betting on it being removed is a weaker bet than betting a 301 list will be adjusted. Build your sourcing risk tolerance around that asymmetry, not around a single point-in-time rate.

Monitoring Each One Without a Compliance Department

You don't need a trade lawyer on retainer to keep up with this, but you do need to know where each program actually publishes changes, because "I read about it on LinkedIn" is not a monitoring strategy.

| Program | Primary source | What to watch for | |---|---|---| | Section 301 | USTR notices (ustr.gov) and the Federal Register | New investigation announcements, list modifications, exclusion window openings/extensions | | Section 232 | Commerce/BIS notices and the Federal Register; CBP CSMS messages for implementation guidance | New derivative product inclusions, country-specific arrangement changes | | MTB | USITC's MTB portal (usitc.gov) | Petition cycle openings, USITC report submissions to Congress, and — the one to actually watch — whether renewal legislation gets scheduled for a vote | | All three, operationally | CBP CSMS (Cargo Systems Messaging Service) messages | How CBP is actually implementing a change at the port level — this is often more useful day-to-day than the underlying policy notice |

A realistic cadence for a small-to-mid importer: check the Federal Register and CSMS messages for your top HTS codes monthly, not daily — this stuff doesn't move fast enough to need daily polling for most businesses, but it moves too fast to check quarterly and stay safe. Set a recurring calendar reminder tied to your top 10-20 imported HTS codes specifically, not a general "read tariff news" habit that's easy to skip. If you're spending real money on a category — steel-content goods, anything Chinese-origin, any input you suspect nobody makes domestically — that's worth automated monitoring rather than manual checking, because a missed exclusion window or a missed inclusion notice costs real dollars per shipment, every shipment, until you catch it.

Decision Guide: Which Lever Applies to Me

Strip away the acronyms and ask these questions in order:

Is your product's country of origin China? → Yes: check the current Section 301 lists for your HTS code. This is your first and usually largest exposure if it applies. → No: 301 (in its current China-specific form) doesn't apply to you. Move to the next question.

Does your product contain steel or aluminum, even as a minor component? → Yes: check whether your finished-good HTS code has been added to a 232 derivatives list. Don't assume "I don't import raw steel" means you're exempt — the derivatives list has grown to cover a lot of finished goods. → No: 232 likely doesn't apply. Move to the next question.

Is there a specific input, chemical, or component in your product that nobody makes domestically in commercial quantity, and where you can document that? → Yes: you're a candidate for MTB petition-readiness. There's no active benefit to claim right now, but build your documentation file so you're ready the moment renewal legislation moves. → No: MTB isn't relevant to your product.

Mitigation menu, once you know your exposure:

Sourcing shift. Moving production out of China can eliminate 301 exposure entirely, but requires a genuine substantial-transformation change in origin — not a paperwork relabel. CBP prosecutes transshipment schemes aggressively.

First-sale valuation. If your supply chain has multiple sales before the goods hit the U.S. (factory → trading company → you), you may be able to use the first sale price as your duty basis instead of the final sale price, which lowers the base every percentage-based duty is calculated against. This applies to MFN, 301, and the ad valorem portion of 232 alike — it's one of the few levers that reduces your exposure across all three programs simultaneously.

Classification review. A second opinion on your HTS classification, particularly for goods with mixed materials or ambiguous "essential character," can sometimes legitimately move a product to a code with a different duty treatment. This needs to be done correctly and defensibly, not aggressively — CBP audits classification changes that look like duty-shopping.

Exclusion window tracking. For 301, actively watch for new exclusion rounds or extensions relevant to your product description, not just your HTS code — exclusion language is often narrower than the tariff line.

The Tariff Stack Audit

An actionable framework for mapping every duty line on your top SKUs, so you're not discovering your real exposure at year-end reconciliation.

Pull your top 10 SKUs by import value (not by unit count — a $2 item at 500,000 units and a $200 item at 5,000 units both matter, rank by dollars).

Confirm the true country of origin for each, per CBP substantial-transformation rules — not just where it shipped from.

Look up the current HTS classification for each SKU and confirm it's still accurate (classifications drift as products change over time and nobody re-checks).

Check the current Section 301 list status for each HTS code and origin combination.

Check whether the SKU has steel, aluminum, or other 232-covered content, and if so, whether that specific product has been added to a derivatives inclusion list.

Check for any other current proclamation-based tariff applicable to the origin country or product category, and confirm the stacking treatment (is it additive to 232, or does an exemption apply?).

Note whether the SKU has ever qualified for an MTB suspension historically — flag it for petition-readiness if renewal moves.

Calculate your effective duty rate: total duty divided by entered value, not just the headline rate — this is the number that actually hits your margin.

Flag any 301-eligible drawback opportunity if the SKU or a downstream product gets re-exported.

Set a recheck date — 90 days out, standing recurring — because every answer above has an expiration date.

Example worksheet:

| SKU | Origin | HTS code | 301 status | 232 status | Other current tariff | Effective duty rate | Recheck date | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Steel patio chair | China | 9401.71.00xx | On active list — verify rate | Steel derivative — verify inclusion | Verify IEEPA-based action & stacking | Calculate from above | +90 days | | Aluminum bracket component | Vietnam | 7616.99.xxxx | N/A (non-China origin) | Aluminum derivative — verify | Verify | Calculate | +90 days | | Specialty chemical input | Germany | (verify) | N/A | N/A | Verify | MTB petition candidate if no domestic source | +90 days |

Do this for real, with real HTS codes and real current lookups, and you have something most of your competitors don't: an actual current picture of your tariff stack instead of a broker's verbal summary from the last time you asked.

Related reading: TariffWatch Section 232 checker BIS Section 232 playbook First Sale valuation guide HTS classification guide

FAQ

Do I pay both 301 and 232 on the same product? Yes, if the product is Chinese-origin, on an active 301 list, and also contains steel or aluminum content covered by a 232 derivatives inclusion. They're assessed under different statutes with different bases (301 typically on full value, 232 often on metal content value), and they stack rather than replace each other. Always verify current stacking treatment for your specific HTS code, since specific proclamations have occasionally carved out exemptions between 232 and other newer tariff actions.

Is the MTB coming back? Unknown as of this writing, and anyone who tells you a confident date is guessing. The last enacted MTB lapsed December 31, 2020. A subsequent petition cycle went through USITC review, but the legislation to actually enact a new list hasn't passed Congress. It has bipartisan manufacturer support historically, which is a real reason for cautious optimism, but "supported" and "passed" are different things. Check USITC's MTB portal for current status before making decisions based on an assumption either way.

Can I get a refund on 301 duties I already paid? Sometimes, if you have a specific legal basis — a retroactive exclusion that covers a period you already imported during, or you were part of litigation that resulted in a refund pathway for your specific entries. There's no general "301 is unfair, give me my money back" claim available. You need a specific mechanism: an exclusion with retroactive application, a protest filed within the deadline, or a court-ordered remedy tied to your actual entries. Talk to a customs broker or trade attorney about your specific entry numbers rather than assuming a blanket refund exists.

What's the difference between 301 and the newer reciprocal or IEEPA-based tariffs? 301 is a trade-remedy statute requiring a USTR investigation into specific unfair practices, tied to a specific finding, with its own review and exclusion mechanics. Tariffs imposed under IEEPA or similar emergency authorities are a different legal basis entirely, generally invoked faster and with different procedural requirements, and have been used for broader country- or category-level actions. Whether they stack with 301 or 232 on a given product depends on the specific proclamation — this is genuinely one of the fastest-changing areas of the whole system, so verify current treatment rather than assuming last year's rule still applies.

My broker told me my product is "232-exempt" — how do I verify that myself? Check the current BIS derivatives inclusion list directly and match it against your specific HTS code, not just your general product category. Inclusions get added over time, so "exempt" six months ago doesn't guarantee exempt today. If your broker can point you to the specific list and date they checked, that's a good sign; if it's a verbal assurance with no source, verify it yourself before you build pricing around it.

Does country of origin for 301 purposes work the same as for regular customs purposes? Yes — it follows the same substantial-transformation origin rules CBP uses generally, not a separate 301-specific test. But CBP scrutinizes origin claims on 301-affected products more aggressively than average, because duty-rate arbitrage through origin manipulation has been a known evasion pattern since 2018. If you're shifting final assembly to a third country specifically to change origin, make sure the transformation is real and well-documented, not cosmetic.

If I use an FTZ, do I avoid 301 and 232 duties entirely? Not automatically. Admitting goods into an FTZ can let you defer duty and, for goods in privileged foreign status, lock in the rate as of admission date. But you still owe the duty when goods leave the zone for U.S. domestic consumption. You only avoid paying duty on goods that leave the zone via re-export without entering U.S. commerce, and that's subject to zone-specific and product-specific restrictions. It's a deferral and rate-lock tool more than a duty-avoidance tool for goods that will actually sell domestically.

Can a Section 301 exclusion cover my exact product, or just the general HTS code? Often narrower than the HTS code. USTR exclusions have frequently been written to cover a specific product description within a tariff line, not every product classified under that line. Read the actual exclusion language, not just the headline HTS number, before assuming your specific item qualifies.

Are 232 tariffs the same rate for every country? No — country-specific arrangements, quotas, and negotiated deals have varied the effective rate by origin country over time, even though the underlying legal authority applies broadly. Don't assume a rate you saw for one origin country applies to another; check current country-specific treatment.

How often should I actually re-check all of this for my products? Quarterly at minimum for your top-revenue SKUs, and immediately whenever you see any Federal Register or USTR/BIS news that touches your product category or origin country. This is not a "set it and forget it" compliance area — treat it like you'd treat a variable interest rate on a loan, because that's functionally what it is.

Primary sources

19 U.S.C. § 2411 (Section 301) — USTR statutory authority.

19 U.S.C. § 1862 (Section 232) — BIS/Commerce statutory authority.

Related reading

BIS Section 232 playbook for SMB importers

Section 232 steel tariffs — 2026 complete rate guide

First Sale valuation — the hidden traps most importers miss

TariffWatch — Section 232/301 monitoring & alerts

TariffWatch pricing

FAQ

Do I pay both 301 and 232 on the same product?

Yes, if the product is Chinese-origin, on an active 301 list, and also contains steel or aluminum content covered by a 232 derivatives inclusion. They're assessed under different statutes with different bases (301 typically on full value, 232 often on metal content value), and they stack rather than replace each other. Always verify current stacking treatment for your specific HTS code, since specific proclamations have occasionally carved out exemptions between 232 and other newer tariff actions.

Is the MTB coming back?

Unknown as of this writing, and anyone who tells you a confident date is guessing. The last enacted MTB lapsed December 31, 2020. A subsequent petition cycle went through USITC review, but the legislation to actually enact a new list hasn't passed Congress. It has bipartisan manufacturer support historically, which is a real reason for cautious optimism, but "supported" and "passed" are different things. Check USITC's MTB portal for current status before making decisions based on an assumption either way.

Can I get a refund on 301 duties I already paid?

Sometimes, if you have a specific legal basis — a retroactive exclusion that covers a period you already imported during, or you were part of litigation that resulted in a refund pathway for your specific entries. There's no general "301 is unfair, give me my money back" claim available. You need a specific mechanism: an exclusion with retroactive application, a protest filed within the deadline, or a court-ordered remedy tied to your actual entries. Talk to a customs broker or trade attorney about your specific entry numbers rather than assuming a blanket refund exists.

What's the difference between 301 and the newer reciprocal or IEEPA-based tariffs?

301 is a trade-remedy statute requiring a USTR investigation into specific unfair practices, tied to a specific finding, with its own review and exclusion mechanics. Tariffs imposed under IEEPA or similar emergency authorities are a different legal basis entirely, generally invoked faster and with different procedural requirements, and have been used for broader country- or category-level actions. Whether they stack with 301 or 232 on a given product depends on the specific proclamation — this is genuinely one of the fastest-changing areas of the whole system, so verify current treatment rather than assuming last year's rule still applies.

My broker told me my product is "232-exempt" — how do I verify that myself?

Check the current BIS derivatives inclusion list directly and match it against your specific HTS code, not just your general product category. Inclusions get added over time, so "exempt" six months ago doesn't guarantee exempt today. If your broker can point you to the specific list and date they checked, that's a good sign; if it's a verbal assurance with no source, verify it yourself before you build pricing around it.

Does country of origin for 301 purposes work the same as for regular customs purposes?

Yes — it follows the same substantial-transformation origin rules CBP uses generally, not a separate 301-specific test. But CBP scrutinizes origin claims on 301-affected products more aggressively than average, because duty-rate arbitrage through origin manipulation has been a known evasion pattern since 2018. If you're shifting final assembly to a third country specifically to change origin, make sure the transformation is real and well-documented, not cosmetic.

If I use an FTZ, do I avoid 301 and 232 duties entirely?

Not automatically. Admitting goods into an FTZ can let you defer duty and, for goods in privileged foreign status, lock in the rate as of admission date. But you still owe the duty when goods leave the zone for U.S. domestic consumption. You only avoid paying duty on goods that leave the zone via re-export without entering U.S. commerce, and that's subject to zone-specific and product-specific restrictions. It's a deferral and rate-lock tool more than a duty-avoidance tool for goods that will actually sell domestically.

Can a Section 301 exclusion cover my exact product, or just the general HTS code?

Often narrower than the HTS code. USTR exclusions have frequently been written to cover a specific product description within a tariff line, not every product classified under that line. Read the actual exclusion language, not just the headline HTS number, before assuming your specific item qualifies.

Are 232 tariffs the same rate for every country?

No — country-specific arrangements, quotas, and negotiated deals have varied the effective rate by origin country over time, even though the underlying legal authority applies broadly. Don't assume a rate you saw for one origin country applies to another; check current country-specific treatment.

How often should I actually re-check all of this for my products?

Quarterly at minimum for your top-revenue SKUs, and immediately whenever you see any Federal Register or USTR/BIS news that touches your product category or origin country. This is not a "set it and forget it" compliance area — treat it like you'd treat a variable interest rate on a loan, because that's functionally what it is.