Law Firm Says Case on Superior Text in Substitution Drawbacks Could See Win for Drawback Community
A case making its way through the Court of International Trade concerning CBP's interpretation of the drawback statute could result in a "win-win for the drawback community," law firm Neville Peterson said in a blog post. The case could see the court "employ a rule of lenity" when interpreting what is an "article description" for the purposes of setting substitution unused merchandise drawback eligibility, the firm claimed.
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"If the nonenumerated heading above an 'Other' provision contains descriptive language (e.g., 'For civil aircraft'), it should be taken into account," the blog said. "On the other hand, if the nonenumerated language is merely 'Other', it can be argued that perhaps this is not part of an 'article description' and should be disregarded. A win-win for the drawback community, if it can be carried off. In the meantime, drawback claimants are sweating it out."
The case, brought by Spirit Aerosystems, deals with a novel issue before the trade court: whether a 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading is ineligible for drawback when the term "other" appears next to its corresponding 8-digit subheading and the 10-digit subheading, even if there might be further article description language between the 8- and 10-digit subheading (see 2303270031). Neville Peterson's post details the history of the drawback substitution and the present case.