J. M. Rodgers Co. v. United States

50 Cust. Ct. 164, 1962 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1419
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedDecember 28, 1962
DocketNo. 67304; protest 60/21660 (New York)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 50 Cust. Ct. 164 (J. M. Rodgers 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
J. M. Rodgers Co. v. United States, 50 Cust. Ct. 164, 1962 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1419 (cusc 1962).

Opinion

Lawrence, Judge:

The merchandise which forms the subject of the above-enumerated protest is described on the invoice and entry papers as “Strip Mill Hot Rolled Scrap Second Hand Steel Coil Ends Pickled & Oiled.” Upon importation from England, the collector of customs at the port of New York classified said merchandise as sheets of iron or steel, valued at not over 3 cents per pound, in paragraphs 307 and 308 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1001, pars. 307 and 308), as modified by the Torquay Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 86 Treas. Dee. 121, T.D. 52739, and imposed duty thereon at the rate of 0.175 of a cent per pound, plus an additional duty of 1/10 of a cent per pound, pursuant to paragraph 309 of said act (19 U.S.C. § 1001, par. 309), as modified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 82 Treas. Dec. 305, T.D. 51802, by virtue of the fact that the involved merchandise had been pickled.

It is the position of plaintiffs herein that the involved merchandise should have been granted entry free of duty as metal scrap pursuant to section 1 of Public Law 869, 81st Congress, 2d session, as amended by Public Law 85-453, 85th Congress, 2d session.

The respective provisions of law are here set forth for ready reference.

Paragraph 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Torquay Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, supra:

Boiler or other plate iron or steel, except crucible plate steel and saw plate steel, not thinner than 0.109 inch, cut or sheared to shape or otherwise, or unsheared, and skelp iron or steel sheared or rolled in grooves; all the foregoing valued not over 3 cents per pound-0.175^ per lb.

Paragraph 308 of said act, as modified by the Torquay protocol, supra:

Sheets of iron or steel, common or black, of whatever dimensions, and skelp iron or steel; all the foregoing valued not over 3 cents per pound:
Thinner than 0.109 but not thinner than 0.038 inch_0.175^ per lb.
* sft :H * # *

Paragraph 309 of said act, as modified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, supra:

Plates or sheets of iron or steel, by whatever name designated, other than polished, planished, or glanced, which have been pickled or cleaned by acid, or by any other material or process, or which are cold-rolled, smoothed only, not polished, shall be subject to_1/104 per lb. more duty than the rates provided on corresponding thicknesses of common or black sheet iron or steel

Section 1 of Public Law 869, 81st Congress, 2d session, as amended by Public Law 85-453, 85th Congress, 2d session:

See. 1. (a) No duties or import taxes shall be levied, collected, or payable under the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, or under section 3425 of the Internal Revenue Code with respect to metal scrap, or relaying and rerolling rails.
[165]*165(b) The word “scrap”, as used in this Act, shall mean all ferrous and nonferrous materials and articles, of which ferrous or nonferrous metal is the component material of chief value, which are second-hand or waste or refuse, or are obsolete, defective or damaged, and which are fit only to be remanufactured * * *.

The only witness called to testify in this case was Harry Harris who appeared on behalf of plaintiffs. Harris, chairman of the board of Harris & Sons Steel Go. for 9 years and for more than 20 years prior thereto its president, testified that his company is engaged in steel processing and rolling and that he has served in all phases of the business, including buying, selling, inspecting, production, and so forth. Merchandise such as that in issue has been imported by Harris & Sons Steel Go. for the past 15 years and was described by the witness as rejected coil ends from the steel mills.

Harris was asked to describe how the imported product is arrived at by the process in the mill in England from which it is bought. It was his testimony that the steel mill starts with either an ingot or a slab. A slab, 18 inches to 3 or 4 feet wide, is subjected to a rolling process to reduce its thickness to l/8th or l/16th of an inch. It is hot rolled through the mill at a rate of up to 2,000 feet a minute. After hot rolling, the sheet is put through a “coiler” which forms the material into a coil. Prom the coiler, it is taken to a degreasing department where it is degreased. The coil of sheet steel is then subjected to a pickling process which consists of submerging the material in an acid bath for several hours. After pickling, it is oiled in some cases and then processed through a series of rollers to make it into the specific gauges called for by customers’ purchase orders. In the latter process, due to the speed at which the mill operates, the first 300 to 1,50o feet and the tail end 300 feet is rejected by the mill as not being true to gauge and for various other reasons such as a tear in the steel which may have occurred in the coiling process, tom edges, laminations which occur due to a defect in the manufacture of the basic slab, splits in the steel, and eccentric gauge, where one side of the sheet may be thicker than the other. The imported merchandise consists of such rejected coil ends.

The merchandise is imported in an unwrapped condition which is not the ease with prime steel. The majority of the coil ends arrive in a rusted condition due to exposure to weather and air, both at the mill abroad and during transportation to this country.

The witness explained that, after importation, his company opens the coil ends with a series of levers which straightens the material. The merchandise is examined and various defective portions are cut out. The remaining material is then rerolled into a coil, pickled, and degreased. After the degreasing process, the coil ends are heated and again rolled, ragged edges are cut off, and the material is again pickled to remove any scales on the steel. It is then sheared into the required sizes for sale to customers as a commercial quality steel, which might be used, for example, by manufacturers of refrigerators on backs of refrigerators which do not have to be of the same quality as the fronts or sides thereof.

Due to the rusted, torn, and laminated condition of the coil ends at the time of importation and due to waste which occurs during the reprocessing of the material in this country, 30 percent of the instant merchandise results in scrap which has no other purpose than to be remelted for remanufacturing purposes. The remaining 70 percent of the imported material is remanufactured by Harris’ company and sold for commercial quality steel purposes, rather than as prime quality steel.

The witness testified that none of the instant material could be used in its original state as imported and is not suitable for any direct manufacture without further processing.

[166]*166In addition to the testimony of witness Harris, the following exhibits were received in evidence on behalf of plaintiffs:

Illustrative exhibit 1 — a photograph representing coil ends rejected by the mill abroad as unfit for its purpose and representative of the imported material.

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Related

J. F. Goldkamp & Co. v. United States
61 Cust. Ct. 331 (U.S. Customs Court, 1968)
J. M. Rodgers Co. v. United States
56 Cust. Ct. 899 (U.S. Customs Court, 1966)

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Bluebook (online)
50 Cust. Ct. 164, 1962 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1419, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/j-m-rodgers-co-v-united-states-cusc-1962.