The Revenge of GRK Screws
Abraham Lincoln is reported to have asked, "How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg?" He answered his own question. "Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg." This is an important legal principle in customs law. How you describe a product at the time of entry does not control the classification. You can't import pickles, call them baseballs and expect Customs to agree. My own corollary to Lincoln's question is this: "What do you call a bowling trophy if you use it as a hammer?" The answer is, a broken bowling trophy. This all matters because the correct name, (as opposed to a fraudulent name) of an item is often a potent indicator of its tariff classification. Many tariff provisions in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States are so-called eo nomine provisions. Eo nomine is legal Latin for "Under that name; by that appellation." It comes from the expression " Perinde ac si eo nomine...