Chemtall, Inc. v. United States, No. 16-2380 (Fed. Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseIn a dispute concerning the proper Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) classification of 38 entries of Chemtall’s product, acrylamido tertiary butyl sulfonic acid (ATBS) during 2010 and 2011, the Trade Court concluded that ATBS was not an “amide” but a derivative of amide. ATBS contains an amide functional group and has a hydrocarbyl group in the R1 position; a hydrogen atom in the R2 position; and a compound containing hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and sulfur (S) atoms in the R3 position. The Federal Circuit affirmed. The great weight of authority indicates that amides, when precisely defined, are limited to having only hydrogen, alkyl, or aryl groups bonded to the nitrogen atom. Because ATBS contains sulfonic acid (SO3H) in a radical attached to the nitrogen atom of the amide functional group, ATBS cannot, under the definitions provided in the secondary sources, be an amide.
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