Dodwell & Co. v. United States

35 Cust. Ct. 279
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedOctober 27, 1955
DocketNo. 59376; protest 242083-K (B) (New York)
StatusPublished

This text of 35 Cust. Ct. 279 (Dodwell & Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Customs Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dodwell & Co. v. United States, 35 Cust. Ct. 279 (cusc 1955).

Opinion

Wilson, Judge:

This protest is against the collector’s assessment of duty on an importation invoiced as “100 bags Gum Arabic.” The merchandise in question was assessed with duty at the rate of one-half of 1 cent per pound under the provisions of paragraph 11, Tariff Act of 1930. It is claimed by the importer that the importation does not consist of gum arabic but, in fact, is gum ghatti or shiraz and should be admitted free of duty under the provisions of paragraph 1686 of the tariff act.

Paragraph 11, Tariff Act of 1930, provides as follows:

Amber and amberoid unmanufactured, not specially provided for, 50 cents per pound; synthetic gums and resins not specially provided for, 4 cents per pound and 30 per centum ad valorem; arabic or Senegal, one-half of 1 cent per pound.

Paragraph 1686, under which the plaintiff claims the imported merchandise is properly classifiable, reads as follows:

Gums and resins: Damar, kauri, copal, chicle, dragon’s blood, kadaya, san» darac, tragaeanth, tragasol, and other natural gums, natural gum resins, and natural resins, not specially provided for.

No witnesses were actually called in court, but it was stipulated between counsel that “if Mr. W. T. Koch, technical director of the plaintiff was called,” he would testify as follows:

* * * he sampled a composite sample made from a half-pound taken from each of the 10 bags of this lot on September 12, 1952 in a warehouse. The tests made were appearance — vermiform, rounded tears small in size, pale yellow to brown, with a dull surface.

Identification — USP method did not produce a white precipitate.

Other examination — Gum not entirely soluble in water — forms a very viscous solution.

Conclusion — Subject sample is not true Gum Arabic but is a species of Gum Ghatti, probably Gum Shiraz of Iran species. Comparison made with other samples of Gum Shiraz would indicate that subject sample is a type of Gum Shiraz.

[280]*280Upon the conclusion of the above-quoted statement, both sides rested, and the case was submitted without briefs.

Not a great deal of help can be obtained from the record in determining the sources, nature, and uses of gum arabic or gum shiraz. This much information is available from the stipulated statement, however, and, in the absence of any other testimony, will be assumed to be true. The imported product analyzed by Mr. Koch had a vermiform appearance and was made up of rounded, small, tear-shaped particles, pale yellow to brown in color, with a dull surface. When analyzed by the United States pharmaceutical method, the samples did not produce a white ‘precipitate, and the imported gum was not entirely soluble in water and formed a “very viscous” solution.

According to Mr. Koch’s report (R. 2-3), these results led him to conclude that the specimens tested were not “true Gum Arabic,” but a species of gum ghatti, probably gum shiraz. Prom his comparison of the tested samples with known samples of gum shiraz, Mr. Koch concluded that the tests “would indicate that subject sample is a type of Gum Shiraz.”

A search of available authorities has led us to agree that the importation is not gum arabic.

Collier’s Encyclopedia (1953), volume 9, page 440, under the heading of “Gum Arabic” states:

* * * a product of several species of Acacia, grown throughout Africa, India, and Australia. A. Senegal is the source of the best gum arabic. The gum exudes from the trees, the process being assisted by making incisions in the bark. The best gum is white or colorless and translucent. Gum arabic is used in the manufacture of inks and confectionery, in textile painting, and in pharmacy.

The following is quoted from The Encyclopedia Americana, 1953 edition:

Gum Arabic, a gum of the Acacia arabica, which grows in India and Arabia. Gum arabic can be obtained also from other acacias. Gum arabic occurs in transparent white tears, which are often colored yellow or brown by impurities; it cracks on exposure to the air on the surface; it is brittle, and has a bland, mucilaginous taste. It dissolves in water, and the solution gives a precipitate of arabin on the addition of hydrochloric acid. Gum arabic contains about 70 per cent of arabin, * * * and 17 per cent of water; the rest consists of potash and lime, which are combined with the arabin. [Last italics added.]

The Merck Index, sixth edition (1952), under the heading “Gum Arabic” refers the reader to “Acacia.” Under the heading “Acacia,” occurs the following discussion:

Acacia. Gum Arabic. * * * According to the U. S. P., acacia is the dried gummy exudation from the stems and branches of Acacia Senegal, or other African species of acacia. * * * Acacia is insoluble in alcohol, but almost completely soluble in twice its weight of water.

Further discussing the same subject, The Merck Index continues as follows:

Use: As mucilage, excipient for tablets, size, emulsifier, thickener, also in candy, other foods; as colloidal stabilizer. Grades available: U. S. P., technical.
Med. Use: Emollient, demulcent, protective. Has been used i. v. in shock and in edema. * * *
Vet. Use: Demulcent, excipient for emulsion, mixtures, etc.

Another authority discusses the subject of “Gum Arabic or Acacia” as follows:

Gum Arabic or Acacia. Gum arabic or acacia, U. S. P. XIV, is also at times referred to as Sudan, Kordofan, African, Khartoum, Turkey, Sennaar, Geddaref, and mimosa gum. From remote antiquity Sudan gum has been an article of commerce. From the beginning of the Christian Era it reached Europe through Arabian ports; hence the designation “Gum arabic.” In the Middle Ages, [281]*281Turkey being the ruling power in the eastern Mediterranean, the name “Turkey sorts” was applied to the article. It has been official in the compendia of most countries for many decades.
Acacia is obtained from acacia trees, which belong to the family Leguminosae. Some 400 Acacia species are widely distributed throughout Africa, in portions of Asia, Australia, and North and Central America. The gum occurs in the form of tears of varying size and color, and angular portions thereof known as fragments. Gradings are bold, large, medium, granular, pickings, and siftings, depending mostly on the size. “Sorts” refers to a random collection of all of them. [Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, volume 7, pp. 331-332.]

The United States Pharmacopeia, fourteenth revision, at page 11, identifies “Gum Arabic” or “Acacia” as follows:

Indentification — To 10 cc. of a cold solution of Acacia (1 in 50) add 0.2 cc. of diluted lead subacetate T. S.: a floceulent, or curdy, white precipitate is immediately produced. [Italics added.]

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