Surety Company Moves to Dismiss Customs Case at CIT on Cigar Wraps
Surety firm American Service Insurance Co. moved to dismiss its customs case at the Court of International Trade. American Service Insurance, serving as a surety for New Image Global, filed the case to contest how CBP weighed its tobacco products and cigar wraps classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 2403.91.2000, dutiable at $24.78 per pound. (American Service Insurance Co. v. United States, CIT # 16-00122).
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The suit was stayed pending resolution of a separate case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in which the appellate court affirmed the trade court's ruling allowing the results of a particular customs test into evidence used to weigh the tobacco wraps. However, the U.S. recently said it discovered it made inaccurate statements in the case, telling the appellate court that samples of the goods relied on in the case were from a specific entry when that wasn't the case (see 2304240043).
Surety counsel Randy Ferguson of Sandler Travis told Trade Law Daily that while he did not consider the Federal Circuit's opinion to be controlling in the present matter, given that different types of wraps were at issue, the amount of money at stake in his case was not enough to continue with litigation. "After an analysis of the entries in the new issue, it was simply determined that it wasn't economically feasible to further challenge the testing in the Court of International Trade and probably cost more than was at stake for the surety," he said.