Corrpro Companies, Inc. v. United States

Corrpro Companies, Inc. (Corrpro) (plaintiff) imported magnesium anodes from Mexico into the United States on August 1991. The United States Bureau of Customs and Border Patrol (customs) (defendant) characterized the anodes as “magnesium and articles thereof” under subsection 8104.19.00 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) and liquidated the entry in June 2000 subject to a 6.5 percent import duty. In September 2000, Corrpro filed a protest, arguing that the anodes should have been classified under HTSUS MX 8543.30.00, which provided duty-free treatment to certain goods imported from a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signatory country. Customs denied the protest, stating that Corrpro had not filed the necessary declaration and certificate of origin within one year of entry as required under 19 U.SC. § 1520(d) and 19 C.F.R. § 181.31 in order to obtain preferential treatment under NAFTA. Corrpro challenged customs’ denial before the United States Court of International Trade, arguing that customs should have granted Corrpro’s anode entry duty-free status upon protest despite Corrpro’s failure to file a certificate of origin within one year because, at that time, a customs headquarters ruling letter excluded entries under HTSUS 8104.19.00 from duty-free treatment. The court agreed with Corrpro. Customs appealed, arguing among other things that Corrpro’s failure to file the written declaration and certificate of origin required under 19 U.SC. § 1520(d) and 19 C.F.R. § 181.31 precluded Corrpro from suing to obtain judicial relief for its NAFTA preference claim, since customs had not had a chance to consider the matter in the first instance.