Quality of CBP Lab Reports Questioned in Cigar Wraps Cases

Unreliable lab reports by CBP call into question suspended cases, regardless of the outcome of a test case, New Image Global, Inc., argued in two separate Oct. 28 complaints to the Court of International Trade (New Image Global Inc. v. United States, CIT #14-00271 and 15-00316).

The case challenges CBP's assessment of additional excise taxes on tobacco cigar wraps based on CBP's weighing using an indirect method. Between 2014 through 2016, New Image filed five actions at CIT that challenged CBP's assessments. In 2018, CIT consolidated and suspended other cases covering 35 entries and designated a test case (New Image Global Inc. v. United States, CIT #15-00175). In 2019, CIT granted the government's dismissal motion in the test case and upheld CBP's assessment procedure. New Image appealed the decision and in June 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed CIT's decision.

New Image says that there are remaining issues "separate and distinct" from CBP's methodology that were not resolved through the test case. The 2012 lab reports show that Customs weighed 25 samples even though New Image imported only nine items in that entry, the company said. Those samples of "unknown origin" make CBP lab reports "unreliable and misrepresentative" as they include items that were not imported in the entry at issue. The test case ruled on the narrow issue of the lab's methodology, not whether the lab was testing the correct material.