Customs Law

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...

It is a new year and a lot has changed in the world. People in my field are either excited about the possibilities of major changes in trade policy or are horrified by the possibilities of major changes in trade policy. I have had several calls about whether the U.S. will withdraw from NAFTA, impose new duties on goods made in Mexico by U.S.-based companies, and raise tariffs on goods from China. My answer so far has been, "I wish I knew." The new President and the new Congress will have a lot of authority under domestic law. The bigger questions will relate to how our trading partners respond. The U.S. has agreed many times to hold or lower duties. Going back on those promises will mean violating WTO obligations and multiple free trade agreements. Some people may not care. The U.S. remains fully sovereign and can violate any international agreements it choses. As a former partner used to say, "The WTO has no army." But, the WTO has the ability to authorize trad...

Next week we in the U.S. will have a new president-elect. Getting there has been an unusually disheartening referendum on the mood and direction of the country. Voting always matters, but it might matter more this year than in a very long time. With that, we take a quick look at Von Stade v. Arthur, 28 F. Cas. 1274 (S.D.N.Y. 1876)(I cannot find a fee link). Here is the decision in its entirety: SHIPMAN, District Judge.  The second section of the act of June 6, 1872 (17 Stat. 231), provided, that, on and after August 1st, 1872, the existing duties upon the articles which are enumerated in the section should be reduced ten per centum.  The section specifies, among the enumerated articles, "all wools, hair of the alpaca goat, and other animals, and all manufactures wholly or in part of wool, or hair of the alpaca and other like animals, except as hereinafter provided." The question in this case is, whether the duty of fifteen cents per pound upon hogs' bristles was redu...

Did you ever see a marlin or other game fish proudly displayed as a mounted trophy and wonder exactly how one goes from landing the fish to hanging it over the mantel? I have always assumed that some portion of that trophy is the actual fish that was murdered caught through the skill and patience of the angler. I pictured a taxidermy shop where meat and entrails were scooped out and skin carefully laid over some sort of interior structure. This was, in my mind at least, a gruesome art form. It turns out that in at least one case, modern anglers do not rely on the real fish at all for their mounted trophies. Apparently, a mounted fish trophy can now be made based entirely on the recollection of the one that got away (or was released). Don't get me wrong, in an era of over fishing and increasing sensitivity to the needless destruction of animal life, this makes perfect sense. Why kill the fish when you can have a replica made and mounted? For our purposes, the question is whether...

You may recall that last year my final exam for Trade Remedies was an elaborate, cinematic fact pattern involving the DC superhero universe. See here for that . Read the comments, which are really quite good. This year, I was not able to string together quite as detailed a fact pattern for my Customs Law class. I did, however, ask this question. Tell me what you think is the correct answer. I will be flexible, but you should not need to stretch too much. I'll be back soon. I promise. QUESTION 3: 25 POINTS Ralph Dibny is the CEO of Plastico, which imports plastic in various forms from suppliers all over the world into the United States. To find suppliers, Ralph relies on two representatives. Reed Richards is responsible for suppliers in South America. Patrick “Eel” O’Brian is responsible for suppliers in Asia. Neither representative is an employee of Plastico. When Plastico wants to purchase materials from South America, Dibny contacts Richards who then finds supplier...

Dear Lex Luthor, This is in response to your implied inquiry concerning the importation of a large sample of kryptonite into the United States. You can find my response here , as published by the fine folks over at Law and the Multiverse . That will be $3 million for service. An itemized invoice may be provided if you so request. Very sincerely, Larry Friedman

By my calculation, this is week 10 of 2016 and this is ROTW 8, I am getting close. Today's ruling might make the squeamish among you go "Eww," but it shouldn't. The product in question is a three-dimensional reconstructed human epidermis. When I read that, I pictured a fully human-shaped skin ready for taxidermy or some more nefarious use. The reality is far more mundane and much more scientifically cool. The ruling is NY N270364 (February 19, 2016) . The product turns out to be an "in vitro " epidermis grown from human skin and other cells cultured on a polycarbonate substrate. Here is the technical lowdown on it. The commercial purpose of this is not to build Buffalo Bill-style human skin suits  or to give Mr. Data goosebumps. The idea is to have an in vitro model for testing drugs, cosmetics, etc. Star Trek: First Contact According to Customs, this item is classified as "Human blood . . . vaccines, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms (exc...

I see we are close to perfecting the Star Fleet-style impulse engine . It also appears that we are working on teleportation , one atom at a time. That got me wondering what Star Trek inspired devices might have been the subject of a Customs classification ruling. What I found is the Star Trek Flash Badge imported by the Kellogg Company to be included as a prize in boxes of cereal. The plastic badges mimic the Star Fleet divisional insignia for Command, Engineering and Science plus insignia of the Klingon and Romulan Empires. Each badge contains a battery. switch and an LED. When the switch is depressed, the LED lights, illuminating the badge. According to Customs, the badges could not be worn and lacked any kind of pin to connect it to a uniform. Customs also noted that their entertainment value outweighed any utility. Here's the interesting part. The badges were imported in bulk and then sent to cereal packaging plants to be inserted in boxes. The badges were not individual...

I got a nice shout out from Law and the Multiverse today. The post is about a law review article on using zombies as teaching tools in law school. Read the post and then read the full article.

Is there still a trend surrounding eating raw to allegedly preserve nutrients and avoid bad karma? I never understood it, nor do I believe there is any science behind it . I remember seeing a woman on a news show talking about how the enzymes in fruit dissolve unhealthy body fat, but she could not identify the enzymes or explain the mechanism. If you tell me you are on a juice cleanse, I will do my best not to scoff. If, however, you are looking for a raw alternative to an otherwise delicious tortilla, you might try a " Pure Wrap ," which is composed mainly of coconut meat that has been pulverized into a slurry and dehydrated into flat wraps. According to the folks at the company: Pure Wraps believes that food is medicine and illness begins with nutritional deficiencies. In order to support wellness and fight disease we need clean food from a clean environment. Therefore, we are committed to unlocking the value of food by combining the ancient wisdom about nourishment...

You may recall, I previously posted about my concerns for the proper means of entering the shambling undead . It appears U.S. Customs and Border Protection has already contemplated the tariff treatment of drinkable zombies mixes. In NY N008597 (Apr. 13, 2007), the product was, among other things, a coffin-shaped cardboard box containing a bottle of "Citrus Zombie." The drink was about 70% water and 30% sugar with small amounts of flavoring a citric acid. The bottle included instructions to mix with equal parts of tequila, which is odd since a zombie cocktail is traditionally made with rum. According to CBP, this product is a food preparation not elsewhere specified or included, classifiable in 2106.90.9972. Helpfully, CBP pointed out that the item was not properly marked with its country of origin and that the food preparation is subject to FDA regulation. All of which is a segue into this cartoon from yesterday's paper . For copyright reasons, I'm just giving ...

May 19th is a holiday for customs and trade professionals. I know that because I declared it to be so. If you don't recall, read this post .

Several alert readers have pointed me in the direction of the May 6, 2015 Customs Bulletin & Decisions in which U.S. Customs and Border Protection proposes to revoke NY N035321 (Aug. 18, 2008). In that ruling, Customs considered the classification of a 14-inch plastic penguin made of red, orange, green and clear beads. To make the item even more impressive, it is equipped with light bulbs that run through the frame and it wears a "Santa hat" made of lights. Stop there for a moment. As with my lighted tie , I have been unable to find a picture of this particular item. Note to anonymous law clerk who found me a representative tie: treat this as a challenge. Find me a picture, please. Customs originally classified this item in Heading 3926 as an other article of plastic. The importer asked for reconsideration of that decision and asserted that it is properly classified as a festive article in heading 9505. As you probably know, the scope of heading 9505 has been the sub...

This one is pretty straight forward. The only reason I am covering it is that the notion of importing completely prepared pizza from Germany is oddly funny to me. Kind of like getting tacos from Australia. In N261593 (Mar. 11, 2015), U.S. Customs and Border Protection answered a ruling request from Freiberger U.S.A., Inc. asking for the tariff classification of a completely prepared and frozen pizza to be imported from Germany. Four varieties were involved including: flatbread with cream sauce and eleven-inch square. The correct tariff classification is in Heading 1905 which is the heading for: Bread, pastry, cakes, biscuits and other bakers' wares, whether or not containing cocoa; communion wafers, empty capsules of a kind suitable for pharmaceutical use, sealing wafers, rice paper and similar products . . . . I come from Chicago where we like our pizza thick, the way God intended it. Consequently, it makes sense to me that pizza would be treated as a bread product. Sp...

Because I have some of the best and well-traveled readers (and their relatives) in the compliance business, I have received a picture of a Pitcairn Island country of origin label. An anonymous reader had this jar of honey in a cabinet. So, compliance pros, what do you think of the marking? Does "Pitcairn Island, South Pacific Ocean" satisfy the U.S. Customs and Border Protection requirement for country of origin marking? Let me know what you think in the comments.

For today's ROTW, I set out looking for a ruling dealing with some far off and preferably warm location. Turns out that, with the exception of coastwise transit issues, there are no Customs and Border Protection rulings involving Pitcairn Island or any of several Pacific Ocean microstates including Tuvalu , Niue , and Kiribati . Pitcairn Island What I did find is an interesting question about the country of origin marking for products of the Bailiwick of Jersey Island, Channel Islands. The ruling is HQ 561938 (Mar. 18, 2002). For those of you who may not know, Jersey is an island off the coast of Normandy, France. It is an independent international actor and not part of the U.K. although the U.K. is responsible for its defense and external relations. Also, the Queen is the Head of State in her capacity as "the Crown in Right of Jersey." It is, according to the U.S. Department of State, a " Crown Dependency " along with the Isle of Man and the Bailiwick o...

I am late on this ruling of the week. I have been busy milking my Walking Dead posting, which got picked up by my friends at Law and the Multiverse.  But, as far as I am concerned, I have another couple hours to go in this week. And, since most of you are probably busy watching the Academy Awards, I will sneak this post on to the site and give it a Hollywood connection. This will be quick because there is not much law in this week's ruling. The ruling is  NY N254307 (Jun 11, 2014) . As you may know, rulings issued by the NY office of Customs and Border Protection often do not contain a lot of legal analysis. Given the short deadline and volume of requests, this makes sense. My guess is that whoever wrote this particular ruling is a car buff. He or she certainly expended a lot of language to find that this particular 1969 Porsche 917K is classifiable not as a passenger car but as a collector's item. That was probably a good result for the importer, because the car was ...

Note, this has been updated to add a little more context for those among you who are not trade compliance professionals. Lately, I have been on a slow binge of watching the Walking Dead. Like most TV adaptations of graphic novels and comics, I am finding it very entertaining. I'm only in Season 3, so no one tell me . . . well, anything. As a result, I have been seeing a lot of images of corpses, both animate and inanimate. That reminded me that there is a specific provision in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States ("HTSUS") for the importation of corpses. The HTSUS is the statute (19 USC 1202) by which imported products are assigned rates of duty. It also sets out certain other regulatory requirements and exceptions. General Note 3(e), HTSUS, exempts from customs duties "corpses, together with their coffins and accompanying flowers." When goods arrive at a port in the U.S., they are usually subject to an "entry." That is the process...

Men's ties are an odd thing. They are completely useless in terms of functionality, unless the function is collection samples of soup and occasionally operating as a choking hazard. It is high time someone took ties to the proverbial next level. It appears that the fine folks at Seasons USA, Inc. have done just that. Apparently, they import a "novelty" tie that incorporates LEDs that light up in amusing patterns of joy. Seasons requested a ruling on the classification of these ties. According to the fashionistas at Customs and Border Protection, ties and bow ties conform to some preconceived notion of acceptable dress. To me, that is just a lack of imagination and fashion adventurism. Who says a light up tie is not acceptable wherever a tie might normally be worn? At a funeral or bar mitzvah, for example. Or a Cabinet Meeting? That's only true if you are not bold enough to do it. But, Customs says a light up tie made of 100% polyester with an elastic band going...

Infantino, LLC v. United States Parents of a certain socio-economic status want to protect their small children from real and perceived dangers including the horrible wire and plastic seats on grocery store shopping carts. You have, no doubt, seen chubby baby legs kicking their way through the square wire openings while parents meet in the produce section to commiserate over the price of soccer cleats and debate which local orthodontist has the best espresso machine in the parents' lounge. Happily, there is a solution in the form of the Funny Farmer Shop & Play 2-in-1 play mat from Infantino. This product is a play mat printed with a farm theme and having detachable toys. It also includes features that make it suitable for use in a shopping cart. Those features include a waist belt, leg flaps, pea pod shaped pillow bolster, and hook and loop closures to secure it to the otherwise offensive shopping cart seat. According to the related advertising, the Funny Farmer is perfect...