Lawfirm

This one is for the lawyers. I'll try my best to make it not too far "inside baseball." Cases in the Court of International Trade don't always result in a published opinion. There are lots of ways customs cases get resolved. It is possible that one side or the other will just give up and file a voluntary dismissal. In other cases, the parties come to an agreement as to the proper treatment of the entry in favor of the plaintiff. When that happens, the parties file a Stipulated Judgment on Agreed Statement of Facts under Rule 58.1 . The Court will usually then enter the judgment and Customs will reliquidate the entry with a refund to the plaintiff or cut a lump-sum refund check. Sometimes there is a combination of events. Because of the large number of related cases at the CIT, the Court has a unique process by which it allows parties to designate a case a "test case" ( Rule 84 ) while suspending other cases that involve the same issues. Once the test case i...

I am not a fan of stress and how it can make me feel.  Unfortunately, stress is part of the life package deal with no opting out button.  Stress can become a chronic ugly thing with negative physical and emotional side effects.  Studies are also linking stress to hypertension, heart disease, and weight gain.  Who the heck wants a whole bunch of extra fat with the heart attack waiting to happen sign sitting on our stressed out shoulders? So many of us are living in a constant state of stress whether from family problems, illness, financial strain, or unhappy marriages and are accepting it as our normal way of life.  Stress places wear and tear on our body as cortisol is leaking out of the adrenal glands in abundance and causing increased blood pressure and waistlines. Stress, straight up is a fitness killer.  I for one refuse to live in a constant state of stress and do implement healthy strategies to eliminate it from my life. The way stress is handled...

Most people assume that when sued by the United States for unpaid customs duties, taxes, fees, and interest, the defendant will have an opportunity to assert all available defenses to the claim against it. That is technically true. The question is which defenses are available. United States v. American Home Assurance Co. , has made the answer to that question a bit clearer, but maybe not in a good way. American Home ("AHAC") is the surety on a number of bonds covering the importation of mushroom and crawfish tail meat from China. Both of those products are subject to antidumping duty orders. Customs and Border Protection liquidated the entries and assessed antidumping duties. When the importer defaulted, the government tried to collect from AHAC and informed AHAC of its intent to seek post-judgment interest. AHAC protested the demands for payment of duties and interest. Customs denied the protests.  Therein lies the problem. Section 1514 of the Tariff Act of 1930 ( 19 USC 151...

Although I have actually been on my bike a shamefully few times this year, I remain interested in all things related to cycling, particularly commuting by bike. A key tool for a bike commuter is a good, solid lock. Thus, I noticed H168717 (July 17, 2015) in the August 12, 2015 Customs Bulletin . You will need to scroll to page 90 to find the ruling. The issue is the proper classification of Master Lock cable locks. Customs originally classified the locks in HTSUS item 8301.10.50 as "Padlocks: not of cylinder or pin tumbler construction: Over 6.4 cm in width." That tariff item has a duty rate of 3.6%. Master Lock argued for classification in item 8301.10.20, which covers locks with a width not over 3.8 cm and has a duty rate of 2.3%. I am going to save myself two thousand words by saying, this is what we are talking about: 8020D: Picture from Amazon 8119DPF: Picture from Amazon You can see where this is going, right? The sole question is, "What is the correct way to measu...

Cycle Agarbathies has roped in Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador. The organized agarbathi market in India is worth around Rs 2400 crore, and Cycle has approximately 20% share of this market. The move for a high-profile celebrity endorsement is a strategy to take the brand to a national level.  The brand also changed its slogan to “ Purity of Prayer”. The new commercial is well made, and BigB was able to pack an emotional tone to the brand. According to reports, the ads were created by Soojith Sirkar of the Piku movie fame.  Watch the tvc here: Big B Cycle  The agarbathi market that is highly fragmented is witnessing intense competition with the entry of ITC with the Mangaldeep brand.  In a market like this, distribution is the key since customers tend to experiment with new fragrances and brands. Cycle wants to play the game of branding and with a high profile endorser like BigB, the brand stand a good chance of gaining more share of mind in the market. 

After writing an article on the topic of Orthorexia Nervosa, an undiagnosed eating disorder where healthy eating is taken to an unhealthy extreme, and on the about.com network, I received an outpouring of emails from people struggling with the disorder or tendencies to the behavior.  I was deeply moved with the many thanks for addressing the issue and providing awareness of the Orthorexia condition.  Upon sharing the article on my Stay Healthy Fitness Facebook there was also quite a bit of backlash and reference to Orthorexia being "bullshit" and just another money making disorder for the doctors.  I did provide a follow-up blog as I do fall under the category of a "clean eater" but there is a difference in healthy eating and healthy obsessive eating.  I ended the blog write with this statement: "Orthorexia is a mental health issue not a clean eating issue, although sparked by "pure" foods.  It is an issue that requires us to look past the food a...

Smart watches are cool new technology. Generally, I want cool new technology. I'm not so interested in a smart watch, at least not at the moment. One reason for this is that I am firmly commitment to my Windows Phone. I have little interest in a watch that requires me to have an iOS or Android phone. Microsoft does not sell a smartwatch, although its former partner Nokia was shopping one . I have some interest in a Microsoft band, which is supposed to have impressive utility for cycling . But, I hear there is a new version on the horizon, so I am waiting. That said, I am struggling to get my current bike computer (a Polar CS300) working. So, I am also kind of jonesing for a Polar M450 . These are clearly my first world issues. A more relevant consideration for this blog is the proper tariff treatment of a smartwatch. Customs recently settled the issue, at least with respect to a Samsung "Gear" Live Android smartwatch. See HQ H257947 (July 14, 2015) . The watch uses Blueto...

A lot has been said about the Minnesota dentist who killed Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe. From the perspective of this blog, the question being asked is whether the American dentist violated any U.S. laws. The short answer is that I don't know for certain whether any criminal laws have been violated. What has come up in the trade context is whether the hunter violated the Lacey Act. Since Lacey impacts trade, it pops up in my practice and is worth a short exploration. The Lacey Act was first passed in 1900 and is an early conservation law. As originally enacted, it protected animals from illegal hunting through criminal and civil penalties. The law also prohibits trade in protected animal and plant species that are hunted or harvested illegally. It is a crime to import into the United States any injurious animals including brown tree snakes, big head carp, zebra mussels, and flying fox bats. 18 USC 42 . Exceptions can be made for properly permitted (and dead) zoological specimens and...

I love being healthy, eating healthy and how I feel as a healthy woman.  I have been living this lifestyle most of my life and at 51 have a healthy handle of what being healthy means.  I teach health and fitness as my occupation and since it is my passion really do not consider it work.  There is something to be said about the existence of living a healthy lifestyle.  My clients know that I don't teach perfection, but progress and it is not a lifestyle of complete restriction, but a healthy balance of eating right 80 to 90 percent of the time and regular exercise. I do not believe in taking things to extremes and making health feel like a burden for me or anyone else.  My mental game is what I want to address here and keeping health in perspective.  I am all about eating organic, non-GMO, and cooking at home to be in control of what I am eating 80 to 90 percent of the time.  I am human and will indulge in occasional adult beverages and will no...

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 individually mark...