# Federal Register #2026-22698

Commerce approves duty-free entry for 29 scientific instruments

**Buyer:** International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce
**Posted:** November 06, 2026
**Identifier:** 2026-22698

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration approved duty-free entry for scientific instruments requested by universities and research organizations.
- **Government buyer and decision-maker:** U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration. The notice does not identify a purchasing office or sub-agency beyond the International Trade Administration.
- **Applicants:** Northwestern University; Cornell University; University of Michigan; University of Texas at Austin; Rice University; Vanderbilt University; University of California, Berkeley; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; New York University; Purdue University; University of California, Riverside; California Institute of Technology; Boston University; University of Wisconsin–Madison; University of California, Santa Barbara; Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC; University of Rochester; University of Delaware; Texas Tech University; Washington and Lee University; and University at Buffalo.
- **OEMs and vendors:** No manufacturers, OEMs, or resellers are identified by name. Product names and model designations are not sufficient to establish a manufacturer.
- **Equipment covered:** Cryostat upgrade parts; a 652 nm single-frequency VECSEL laser; LD400 and BF-LD250 refrigerator systems; dilution refrigerators, including a ProteoxMX and a custom low-vibration model with optical access; a tunable OPO laser source for a neaSCOPE microscope; an LD250He refrigerator; attoDRY2100 and attoDRY800 optical cryostats; dilution refrigerators paired with 12T and 14T magnets; TeslatronPT with a 14T magnet; Pharos PH2-20W-SP Laser A; tunable low-noise and femtosecond lasers; an angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy analyzer system; neofleX MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry system; MyoDish; an energy- and angle-resolved electron analyzer; an 8 kW solid-state amplifier; an electron microscope; an ultra-high-vacuum system for X-ray photoelectron and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy; SpectromagPT with a 7T magnet; and an inVia Qontor spectrometer.
- **Quantities and requirements:** The notice does not state quantities or identify manufacturers. Commerce reported no public comments and found no U.S.-manufactured instrument of equivalent scientific value for the stated purposes.

### Description

The Department of Commerce announces its decision under the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Materials Importation Act on applications for duty-free entry of scientific instruments. Following a prior request for public comment on whether equivalent instruments were manufactured in the United States, no comments were received. The applications listed in the notice were approved; Commerce found no instrument of equivalent scientific value being manufactured in the United States at the time of order.

[View original listing](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/11/06/2026-22698/northwestern-university-and-cornell-university-et-al-notice-of-decision-on-application-for-duty-free)