International Light Metals v. United States

194 F.3d 1355 (1999)

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International Light Metals v. United States

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
194 F.3d 1355 (1999)

Facts

International Light Metals (ILM) (plaintiff) imported and paid duties for titanium sponge, a commercially pure form of titanium containing 99.3 percent titanium. ILM then used titanium-alloy scrap, a material that contained the same amount of titanium as the imported titanium sponge, to manufacturing products that ILM then exported. ILM filed a substitution drawback claim under 19 U.S.C. § 1313(b) seeking a refund of duties paid upon importation of the titanium. Although the United States Customs Service (customs) (defendant) initially approved ILM’s claims, customs then denied them upon discovering that the products exported by ILM were made not with titanium sponge, but rather with titanium-alloy scrap. ILM challenged customs’ determination, arguing that § 1313(b) allowed substitution drawback claims if a manufacturer used materials of the “same kind and quality” as those imported, and that the titanium-alloy scrap and titanium sponge were of the same kind and quality because the two materials shared a common attribute. Customs argued that titanium-alloy scrap and titanium sponge were not of the same kind and quality because they were not identical to each other. The United States Court of International Trade agreed with customs, and ILM appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Schall, J.)

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