Customs Law

One thing I have learned as a customs lawyer who does a lot of classification work is that there are millions of odd items moving in international trade the existence of which I am completely ignorant. Such is the case of the gaseous tritium light sources used in, among other things, firearm sights. These things use tritium sealed in a glass that has been coated in phosphor. The radioactive tritium decays, releasing beta particles, which interact with the phosphor causing it to emit light. In other words, it creates light with no external power source. Pretty cool.  Tritium is, of course, a real thing. It is an isotope of hydrogen. We know this from the excellent documentary "Spider-Man." This comes up in relation to the Court of International Trade decision in Trijicon, Inc. v. United States  in which the importer challenged the tariff classification of several versions of the gaseous tritium light sources ("GTLS"). The plaintiff uses them to make gun sights. The...

 For the most part, the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States has an internal logic and consistent format that eases navigation. Most of us who work with the HTSUS can easily communicate about Sections, Chapters, Headings, and Subheadings. There is, however, the occasional need to talk about the fragments of text that are neither subheadings, nor tariff items, nor statistical breakouts. They are the un-numbered lines. Take, for example, 8504.90, the subheading for parts of electrical transformers and similar products.  8504.90 is the subheading. The first tariff item below the subheading is 8504.90.20 covering printed circuit assemblies that fit within the scope of the un-numbered language between 8504.90 ("Parts") and 8504.90.20 ("Printed circuit assemblies"). There are two more of these un-numbered subdivisions below 8504.90.41. Normally, this oddity would not merit any discussion. For classification purposes, it is pretty clear that these un-numbered sn...

What happens when Customs decides that an entry was "deemed liquidated" while the entry is suspended by the Commerce Department? Apparently, nothing. That is the gist of the decision in Fraserview Remanufacturing Inc. v. United States , a (relatively) recent decision from the Court of International Trade.  The facts of this case are a bit complicated. The imported merchandise was softwood lumber from Canada, which is subject to an antidumping and countervailing duty order. As part of the administrative process, on March 19, 2020, Commerce ordered that CBP suspend the liquidation of the 80 entries subject to this case. Customs, however, mistakenly scheduled the entries for manual liquidation. Inexplicably, Customs, citing "system errors," failed to actually liquidate them. After noticing the failed (and incorrect) effort to liquidate the entries, CBP marked the entries as having been deemed liquidated by operation of law on August 7, 2020.  "Deemed liquidation...

The Lacey Act , as you likely know, prohibits the international movement of plants and animals that were harvested illegally. Typically, a violation involves a company that imported wood or wood products for use in production or for resale. Less commonly, by which I mean never until just now, does the violation involve the importation of parts of wild mountain sheep from Kyrgyzstan as part of a plot to clone the sheep to produce breeding males to make hybrid giant sheep for private hunting in Montana. That real live plot, recently noted in a Department of Justice press release , sounds like the hobby or side hustle for the villain in a James Bond movie.  Thanks to Tom B. for the tip and the nudge to do this update. The crazy facts are that the owner of an "alternative livestock ranch" in Montana violated the Lacey Act when he conspired with others to import "parts" of Marco Polo argali sheep.  These are among the largest sheep in the world and are native to the Pam...