CAFC Says No CBP Obligation to Protect Surety From Importer Under Investigation

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Dec. 1 affirmed the dismissal of a challenge brought by a surety for the government’s failure to warn it against providing a bond against an unscrupulous importer (here). The Court of International Trade had in June 2013 dismissed the case because, although the importer was under investigation by CBP at the time Hartford Fire Insurance agreed to provide a bond on an entry subject to antidumping duties on crawfish tail meat from China, the investigation wasn’t focused on a problem relevant to the entry at issue (see 13062817). The Appeals Court agreed, finding the fact that the importer later disappeared and Hartford was left to pay its debt wasn’t relevant to the investigation, so CBP had no reason to refuse or set additional requirements on the entry like additional bonding requirements that would have protected Hartford.