Kent International, Inc. v. United States, No. 21-1065 (Fed. Cir. 2021)
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A 2005 Customs ruling letter stated that Kent’s imported bicycle seats would be classified as “accessories of bicycles” under HTSUS heading 8714, with a 10% ad valorem duty. In 2008, after Customs classified a competitor’s bicycle seats as “seats” under duty-free heading 9401. Kent started filing protests, post-entry amendments, and an application for further review. Customs approved the protests and reliquidated Kent’s merchandise under heading 9401. Kent sought revocation of the 2005 Ruling but continued to make entries through New York and lodged protests for each. Customs stopped granting those protests. Kent began to import the same merchandise through Long Beach under heading 8714. Long Beach Customs treated these entries as bypass entries and liquidated them under heading 8714 without examination or Customs officer review. Kent protested. Although the New York protests were granted, Kent’s Long Beach protests were denied. In 2014, Customs revoked its earlier decisions classifying Kent’s competitors’ merchandise under heading 9401, concluding that the merchandise would be classified under heading 8714. Customs declined to revoke the 2005 Ruling.
The Trade Court rejected Kent’s claims that the classification violated 19 U.S.C. 1625(c) by departing from a “treatment previously accorded” and was contrary to a de facto “established and uniform practice” (EUP) under section 1315(d). The Federal Circuit reversed. The Trade Court erred in approving Customs’ use of bypass entries to show the absence of treatment previously accorded but properly found no de facto EUP.
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