Administrative Law

A Laser-Like Focus on Questions of Law

Posted on May 20, 2013
The Court of International Trade's recent decision in EOS of North America v. United States has a few interesting bits of legal analysis in it.The underlying facts of the case are simple enough. The EOS imported devices called "laser sintering machines...

A Day Late and an Abomination Short

Posted on May 20, 2013
May 19 was Tariff of Abominations Day, a holiday I created for customs and trade compliance people. I hope you enjoyed yourself.If you are wondering what I am on about, please read this post from May of 2008. And, if you are sufficiently Nerdist to get the reference, it has nothing to do with Emil Blonsky...

Ugg. A Decision on Boots.

Posted on May 10, 2013
When last we considered the tariff classification of Ugg Classic Crochet boot, the Court of International Trade held that the boots are "of the slip-on type" and, therefore classifiable in HSTUS item 6404.19.35. Ugg appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has now affirmed the CIT...

Post-Entry NAFTA Claims: Is Reconciliation a Waiver?

Posted on May 04, 2013
As you likely know, Ford Motor Company has been battling with Customs over whether it is entitled to duty refunds pursuant to post-entry NAFTA claims it made without submitting a completed NAFTA Certificate of Origin from the exporter within the required one-year period...

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Victoria's Secret is Tariff Classification

Posted on May 04, 2013
Remember my post on the question of whether a fit model can testify on the question of whether a shelf bra provides support for her bosom? Sure you do, it's a classic of the customs blog genre.The Court of International Trade has now decided the relevant cases, which are Lerner New York, Inc...

The Problem with Test Cases: Deckers

Posted on April 21, 2013
The Court of International Trade has a few unique rules of practice. Chief among those is Rule 84, which permits a party to designate an action as a "test case" and suspend other cases pending the outcome of the test case. In customs litigation, this can be a handy tool...

INCOTERMS and Customs Valuation

Posted on April 20, 2013
Cutter & Buck, Inc. v. United States is one of those increasingly rare cases in which the Court of International Trade had to determine the value of imported merchandise. In this case, the question was whether Customs and Border Protection should have deducted international freight charges from the transaction value of imported merchandise...

Burma and Laos in Line as Possible GSP Beneficiaries

Posted on April 19, 2013
The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced that it is initiating a review of Laos and Burma for possible designation as Beneficiary Developing Countries under the Generalized System of Preferences. The notice is here. Comments are due May 17 and there is a hearing scheduled for June 4...

8 Years and Still Running . . . Slowly

Posted on April 16, 2013
This blog is now eight years old. That is surprising even to me. As always, I feel guilty that things do not get here as quickly as they should. That is life with a job and a family. I'll do my best to keep up. I just printed three CIT cases to review...

Expanding the Centers of Excellence and Expertise

Posted on April 16, 2013
There is an interesting piece by Tim Warren in yesterday's International Trade Today (subscription required). The article talks about Customs and Border Protection's plans to expand the Centers of Excellence and Expertise concept beyond trusted traders...

Welcome Back Cotterman. You are Under Arrest.

Posted on April 07, 2013
The scope of Customs and Border Protection's authority to search and seize digital devices including laptops and phones has been a matter of controversy for several years. The most recent detailed discussion of this from a federal court is in United States v...

Kahrs Affirmed: It's Neither Parquet Nor Butter

Posted on April 06, 2013
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed the Court of International Trade's decision in Kahrs International, Inc. v. United States. This case involves the tariff classification of engineered wood flooring designed to be installed in to form a pattern of parallel planks...

Kirtsaeng II, the Dissent

Posted on March 27, 2013
Kirtsaeng, discussed in this prior post, was not unanimous. Justice Kagan wrote a concurring opinion in which Justice Alito joined. Justice Kagan's main point is to recognize that the Court's decision significantly narrows the ban on the unauthorized importation of copyrighted works found in 17 U...

When are Pants Not Pants?

Posted on March 26, 2013
This has been an interesting issue for a while now. It started when the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit declared that hockey pants with built-in pads were not classifiable as wearing apparel, but as hockey equipment. That was in a case called Bauer Nike Hockey USA, Inc...

Messin' with Customs

Posted on March 26, 2013
Link Snacks, Inc. v. United States is a straight forward and very frustrating case from the Court of International Trade. The sole question is whether beef jerky made of dehydrated cured beef is classifiable as cured beef (1602.50.09, 4.5%) or as other beef (1602...

Kirtsaeng SCOTUS Analysis

Posted on March 20, 2013
The background to Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is interesting. This is a copyright case involving the unauthorized importation of textbooks. Wiley is a publisher of textbooks in both the U.S. and various foreign markets. Some of the books it sells in foreign markets are produced abroad and contain notices stating that the books are intended only for sale and distribution in specified non-U...

Breaking News: SCOTUS Decision on Parallel Imports

Posted on March 19, 2013
On March 18, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons. The Court held that the first sale doctrine of copyright law applies to works made abroad. This means that importers can purchase legitimately made copyrighted works abroad and import them without the permission of the copyright holder...

At Last! We have solved the Kinder Egg Crisis

Posted on March 17, 2013
Since 1938, chocolate eggs molded around a toy surprise have been illegal to import into the United States. These items are deemed too dangerous for kids due to a potential choking hazard and also the toy is in direct contact with the food, which upsets the Food and Drug Administration...

Patents Sneek into the Court of International Trade

Posted on March 17, 2013
I have been sitting on Corning Gilbert for a while. But, it is time we tackle it.First some background. I fascinated by intellectual property law and initially planned to practice in that area. I even spent a little time in a firm doing copyright work...

A Non-Protestable "Exclusion"

Posted on March 11, 2013
Just because Customs and Border Protection rejected an importer's attempted entry of merchandise, that does not mean it was "excluded" for purposes of filing an administrative protest. That is the lesson of Sunshine International Trading v. United States...

Customs Law from the 11th Circuit

Posted on February 25, 2013
Sometimes interesting customs law cases come from outside the Court of International Trade and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In this case, it comes from the Eleventh Circuit, with a special guest appearance from the Court of International Trade...

Feds join whistle-blower lawsuit against Lance Armstrong - CNN.com

Posted on February 22, 2013
The False Claims Act is a powerful tool. It allows individuals who have information concerning false statements made to the U.S. government to file a law suit on behalf of the United States when the false statements were made to secure some benefit from the government...

Update

Posted on February 21, 2013
In case you were wondering, I am here. I've had a lot going on at work and have also been trying to finalize a law review article. Luckily, I have been able to enlist the services of a recent John Marshall Law School grad to finish up some of the detail work...

Dependable Classification Solutions

Posted on February 21, 2013
Dependable Packaging Solutions v. United States involves the tariff classification of inexpensive open top glass vessles imported from China. As with most classification cases, there was no dispute as to the nature of the merchandise. The two headings in question here were 7010 and 7013, which cover:7010Carboys, bottles, flasks, jars, pots, vials, ampoules and other containers, of glass, of a kind used for the conveyance or packing of goods; preserving jars of glass; stoppers, lids and other closures, of glass ...

Detentions, Exclusions & Protests

Posted on February 05, 2013
This post is really just an elaborate link to this article on my law firm's web site. The article talks about what I call the magic space of time in which you can challenge Customs and Border Protection's exclusion of merchandise in the Court of International Trade...

New Proposal on Counterfeits

Posted on February 01, 2013
Currently, when Customs and Border Protection detains merchandise suspected of being counterfeit, it has to do a fairly difficult dance with respect to dealing with the owner of the trademark. This is because the importer has rights under the federal Trade Secrets Act that protect it from Customs releasing business proprietary information to the anyone including the trademark owner...

Pomeroy Collection

Posted on January 31, 2013
I am going to make short work of a long opinion. The Pomeroy Collection, Ltd. v. United States concerns the tariff classification of various glass and glass and metal decorative items that may or may not be used as candle holders. And that is really the gist of the case...

A Core Marking Question

Posted on January 28, 2013
It has been a while since I covered a Customs and Border Protection ruling. But, HQ H171035 is right in my wheelhouse of personal and professional interest. It concerns the application of NAFTA and non-NAFTA marking rules to used motor vehicle parts imported for remanufacturing...

Third Time is the Charm in Active Frontier

Posted on January 23, 2013
Before you jump into this update on Active Frontier, you might want to refresh yourself here and here.You will recall that this is a case where the United States is trying to get a default judgment against an importer who falsely declared the country of origin of apparel on the entry documents...

NAFTA News from Canada

Posted on January 18, 2013
This is a follow up to my tweet from last week about the Canadian International Trade Tribunal determination in the long-running dispute between Frito-Lay Canada and Canada Border Services Agency. The issue had to do with Cheetos erroneously entered into Canada classified as cardboard boxes...

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