Customs Law

Customs law is an interesting practice because we get to see all of the interesting things that come into the country. Granted, a lot of it is pieces of machinery, chemicals, and goods for resale. Now and again, something strange or unexpected shows up. Couple that with my belief that the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States provides the legal means of determining important philosophical questions such as whether something is art or is holy. These questions are, sort of, the issue in HQ H136955 (Aug. 6, 2014) , which for some reason was only recently published. The merchandise at issue is the 3/4 round depiction of Our Lady of Guadalupe with surrounding rays of light. The issue is whether this is a statuette or ornament of wood of HTSUS heading 4420, an original sculpture of Heading 9703, or an article for use by a religious institution of HTSUS item 9810.00.25. The starting place for this analysis is that Note 1(r) to Chapter 44 excludes works of art of Chapter 97. T...

This one will be quick, for lots of reasons. Mostly, I don’t have much to add to the ruling other than a question. The ruling at issue is HQ H128416 (Feb. 9, 2017). It involves the tariff classification of digital wide-format ink-jet printer used to print and cut vinyl graphics for outdoor advertising and similar applications. The printer is a combination of a printing machine and a cutting machine. As such, the competing tariff provisions are in Heading 8443 (Printing machinery) and 8477 (Machinery for working rubber or plastic). That is the sole question addressed in the ruling. To resolve the classification, Customs and Border Protection applied Note 3 to Section XVI of the HTSUS, which states in relevant part: Unless the context otherwise requires, composite machines consisting of two or more machines fitted together to form a whole and other machines designed for the purpose of performing two or more complementary or alternative functions are to be classified ...

I am falling behind on Rulings of the Week, but not for want of effort. I am keeping up with CIT decisions (more or less). The latest of which is Well Luck Co., Inc. v. United States . The case has to do with the classification of sunflower seeds that have been processed for human consumption. Some have been flavored with spices or other flavorings and dried. All are roasted and salted. The question is the tariff classification, which turns out to be trickier than you think. The options are HTSUS item 1206.00.00, which covers "Sunflower seeds, whether or not broken." The applicable rate of duty is free and this is what the plaintiff claimed is correct. Customs and Border Protection liquidated the sunflower seeds in HTSUS item 2008.19.90 as "Fruits, nuts and other edible parts of plants, otherwise prepared or preserved . . . not elsewhere specified or included: Nuts, peanuts (ground-nuts) and other seeds . . . ." The applicable rate of duty is 17.9%, which is a sig...

La Nica Products is an odd case. It involves a claim for preferential duty treatment under the US-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA-DR. The merchandise is cheese from Nicaragua. On its face, one would think that an agricultural product like cheese would satisfy most rules of origin. But, that is not the issue in this case. The problem here is the identity of the party making the claim. La Nica was listed as the importer of record and made the claim for duty-free treatment. After entry, La Nica, who had been listed as the importer of record, filed a Post-Entry Amendment ("PEA") attempting to change the importer of record to another party. Apparently, the other party purchased the cheese while it was en route. Customs and Border Protection asked La Nica for proof of the sale to the new alleged IOR and for a certificate of origin to support the CAFTA-DR claim. Plaintiff did not respond. Customs denied the the PEA request and liquidated the en...

[UPDATED TO ADD LINK TO THE DECISION] Remember Snuggies? A few years back, they were part of the zeitgeist. Here is a reminder of exactly what is a Snuggie. According to the commercial, Snuggies are wearable blankets with sleeves-like tubes. That raises an interesting classification question. Is it a blanket of HTSUS item 6301.40.00 (8.5%) or is it a garment classifiable in 6114.30.30 (14.9%)? Or, if it is neither, is it an "other made up article?" The Court of International Trade had to decide that question in Allstar Marketing Group v. U.S. These are important questions in my world. I get that there is a lot going on in the larger world. Lately, I have been inspired and a little shamed watching lawyers who practice in areas affecting the actual lives and liberty of people, particularly refugees and others trying to entry the country. It made me proud to be a lawyer to see my colleagues set up shop at airports to provide assistance. Yesterday, I was at a meeting sp...

There are a number of Chapter 98 tariff items that permit partial duty exemptions for items of the United States that are sent abroad and returned to the United States. Given the current trade rhetoric, it might be worth explaining why that is the case. After all, why give a benefit to companies that send goods abroad for further processing? The short answer is that the duty exemption encourages the use of U.S. origin materials in manufacturing abroad. After all, if there is going to be manufacturing abroad, the U.S. should encourage that it take advantage of U.S.-origin components and materials. The alternative is to manufacture abroad entirely from foreign components. The HTSUS item at issue in HQ H281950 (Jan. 26, 2017) 9802.00.60, which provides a partial duty exemption for: Any article of metal (as defined in U.S. note 3(e) of this subchapter) manufactured in the United States or subjected to a process of manufacture in the United States, if exported for further processing, a...

Apparently there is some kind of festival of TV commercials starting in a few minutes. I understand it will be punctuated by grown men playing football for millions of dollars. Consequently, I will make this quick. Consistent with my New Years Resolution to cover scope and other trade-related issues that closely impact customs compliance, here is a note on  IKEA Supply AG v. United States . This is a request for a rehearing of a prior decision in which the Court of International Trade held that certain IKEA towel bars are within the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China. The bars are indisputably aluminum extrusions. In each box, there is mounting hardware that does not constitute aluminum extrusions, but which, according to Commerce, are fasteners. Finished goods are excluded from the scope of the orders. In a scope determination, Commerce held that because the finished towel bars are extrusions and that the only non-extr...