Importer Scraps Customs Suit on Grinding Machines

Importer Vecoplan on June 17 dismissed one of its customs cases at the Court of International Trade regarding the classification of its grinding machines (Vecoplan v. United States, CIT # 20-00106).

CBP had classified the goods under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8479.89.9499, dutiable at 2.5%, while Vecoplan claimed the goods should have instead been filed under subheading 8479.82.0080, free of duty.

Lawrence Friedman, counsel for Vecoplan, said in an email that there was only a single protest at issue in the present case and that it wasn't "properly before the Court." The dismissal had nothing to do with the suit's merits and doesn't "reflect on the one case left to be resolved," he added.

The importer recently won a separate customs suit on the classification of its grinders, securing the duty-free treatment for its goods (see 2312120044). In the present case, the protest was filed with CBP on June 21, 2019, while the liquidation date was marked as July 26, 2019.