Customs Law

As of July 1, 2018, importers of archaeological pieces have to report their merchandise to U.S. Customs and Border Protection with new detail. That is because the U.S. has added a new statistical breakout for these items and two related statistical notes. Prior to January of 2018, Heading 9705 provided, in its entirety: Click Image for Better View For people who trade in these items, those who study the legal and illegal trade in antiquities, and (presumably) enforcement agencies, lumping archaeological, historical, and ethnographic pieces together did not provide adequate detail about what is entering the country. As previously drafted, 9705.00.0070 covered items as diverse as a 1936 Bugatti race car and an Egyptian Stone Ushabti  from the 18th Dynasty . Working on behalf of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield and with the support of several interested not-for-profit entities, we asked the 484(f) Committee to further divide this provision to separately identify, ...

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...

We have been down this road before . When is a car so classic, so old, and so valuable that it ceases to be a car for purposes of tariff classification and is treated as a collector's piece of historical interest? This time, in HQ H271385 (May 9, 2016), the question involves a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTS/4 NART Spyder. I think this is the model in question: This particular vehicle is the second to last of 10 such vehicles ever produced. One sold at auction in 2013 for over $27 million . The commercial invoice used at the time of importation showed this vehicle having a value of $25 million. From a classification perspective, there is no question that this is a car of Heading 8703. The question is whether it is also a collectors' piece of historical interest of Heading 9705. If so, Note 4 to Chapter 97 precludes classifying the vehicle in Heading 8703. Clearly, this item is of great interest to collectors. That leaves open the question of whether that interest is "hist...

I just got around to reading Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino. Anyone interested in the compliance aspects of the trade in cultural properties and antiquities should read this book. The details of the illicit trade and the evolution of thinking within the museum community are fascinating. The book is well researched and travels between illegal excavations in Italy to the NY apartments of wealthy collectors, and finally to the halls of the Getty Museum in California. There is not a lot of legal background here other than references to the 1970 UNESCO convention and the National Stolen Property Act. But, this is not a legal text. It is more about the culture of the antiquities trade. From a legal perspective, this is a great case study on how our clients can sometimes self-blind and delude themselves into believing they have compliance. Or, more cynically, how companies can create the appearance of ...

I am not sure how often readers of this blog might use the suggested links on the right margin. I have noticed that a few of the blogs listed there have gone dormant and other URLs have been co-opted by other sites. So, I have done a little curating and removed dead or bad links. I also added a link to the Cultural Heritage Lawyer blog , which I recommend you visit. Cultural heritage law is focused on the restrictions on the trade in antiquities and important artifacts of cultures and ethnic groups. Often, the primary enforcement agencies are Department of Homeland Security Investigations (of ICE for us old timers) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. As a result, these issues often become issues of customs law, and something I try to follow. You should too, it is interesting stuff. Also, while I do not tweet often, I remind readers to subscribe to my Twitter feed to catch short updates and links to interesting articles.

R.T. Foods, Inc. v. United States involves the tariff classification of prepared tempura vegetables. Somehow, I was surprised to find out that this is an imported product, though a mental walk through the frozen food isle reminded me that just about any food product can be bagged, frozen, and shipped. In this case, the specific products were a tempura vegetable medley and tempura vegetable bird's nests. The medley consisted of a mix of sweet potato, carrot, something called "wing bean," green bean (or long bean), and eggplant. The bird's nests were julienned carrots, onion, and kale mixed together. Both products were dipped in tempura batter, frozen, packed and shipped. Before it could get to the classification issue, the Court of International Trade had to deal with a jurisdictional issue. Remember that for the Court to have jurisdiction to hear a classification case, the importer must have filed a protest within 180 days after the date of liquidation and filed a ...

Despite what casual readers of this blog might think, customs law is not all about classification, value, and NAFTA. It actually covers a wide range of issues, many of which involve regulations that Customs and Border Protection enforces for other agencies. By way of example, you may already know that I have a strange fascination with the illegal (and reprehensible) trade in endangered species . Another interest of mine is the legal and illegal trade in cultural property . A recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit discusses the regulation of trade in cultural property with respect to ancient coins. By way of background, the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act ("CPIA") permits foreign governments, known as State Parties, to request that the United States prohibit the unauthorized importation of culturally significant items. The intent here is to staunch the traffic in illegally looted artifacts. To...