LawCustoms readers may recall a post describing Court of International Trade very critical message to CBP about its treatment of protests in Zojirushi v. U.S. More then six months into a decision, CBP responded through CSMS #17-000110 “Post-importation Claims for Preferential Tariff Treatment.” CBP now instructs to do away with “Rejected as Non-Protestable” label for 19 U.S.C. § 1514 protests filings that deal with non-1520(d) trade preference programs. In Zojirushi v. U.S. the program involved was Generalized System of Preferences.
In compliance with the now-amended memorandum, dated August 11, 2014, ports may have rejected as non-protestable (rather than denied) initial post-importation preference claims made under 19 USC §1514. Pursuant to the decision by the Court of International Trade in Zojirushi America Corp. v. U.S., in order to assist CBP in processing protests previously rejected as non protestable, importers are requested to resubmit their protests to the appropriate field offices within 180 days of the issuance of this guidance.
