New York Merchandise Co. v. United States

65 Cust. Ct. 73, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3079
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedAugust 6, 1970
DocketC.D. 4057
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 65 Cust. Ct. 73 (New York Merchandise 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
New York Merchandise Co. v. United States, 65 Cust. Ct. 73, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3079 (cusc 1970).

Opinion

Ford, Judge:

This matter comes before the court for decision pursuant to our order in New York Merchandise Co., Inc. v. United States, 54 Cust. Ct. 469, Abstract 69387 (1965), which granted a rehearing in the above entitled case, initially decided in New York Merchandise Co., Inc. v. United States, 54 Cust. Ct. 199, C.D. 2533 (1965).

Our original decision held the classification of certain plastic dresser or bureau scarfs measuring 14 by 42 inches and 15 by 33 inches under the provisions of paragraph 1529 ( a), Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the- supplemental agreement between the United States and Switzerland, 90 Treas. Dec. 174, T.D. 52832, by virtue of the similtude provisions contained in paragraph 1559(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by the Customs Simplification Act of 1954, T.D. 53599, to be erroneous. However, plaintiff having failed to establish the correct classification, the court overruled the protest without affirming the classification therein.

Plaintiff contends at this time that said merchandise is primarily subject to duty at only 10 per centum ad valorem under the provisions of paragraph 1558, Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Torquay Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 86 Treas. Dec. 121, T.D. 52739, and T.D. 52827. Alternatively plaintiff claims, by virtue of the similitude provision contained in paragraph 1559(a), supra, the imported merchandise to be subject to classification under the following provisions:

Under par. 911 (b), as modified by T.D. 53865, by siifiilitude to cotton table and bureau runners and scarfs, at 15% ad valorem;
Under par. 1023, as modified by T.D. 54108, by similitude to manufactures of flax, at 17 % ad valorem;
Under par. 923, as modified by T.D. 53865, by similitude to manufactures of cotton, not specially provided for, at 20% ad valorem;
Under par. 1023, as modified by T.D. 51802, by similitude to manufactures of vegetable fiber other than cotton, flax, and jute, at 20% ad valorem.

[75]*75Plaintiff has abandoned its claim under paragraph 1413, Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 82 Treas. Dec. 305, T.D. 51802. Accordingly said claim is dismissed.

Defendant, in addition to urging the correctness of the classification, alternatively urges classification under the provisions of paragraph 1312, Tariff Act of 1930, as modified, by virtue of the highest rate prescribed provision of paragraph 1559(c), Tariff Act of 1930, as amended.

The pertinent portions of the provisions involved herein read as follows:

Paragraph 1529 (a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended:
Laces, lace fabrics, and lace articles, made by hand or a lace, net, knitting, or braiding machine, and" all fabrics and articles made on a lace or net machine, all the foregoing, plain or figured; lace window curtains, veils, veilings, flouncings, all-overs, neck rufflings, flutings, quillings, ruchings, tuckings, insertings, gal-loons, edgings, trimmings, fringes, gimps, and ornaments; braids, loom woven and ornamented in the process of weaving, or made by hand, or on a lace, knitting, or braiding machine; and fabrics and articles embroidered (whether or not the embroidery is on a scalloped edge), tamboured, appliquéd, ornamented with beads, bugles, or spangles, or from which threads have been omitted, drawn, punched, or cut, and with threads introduced after weaving to finish or ornament the openwork, not including one row of straight hemstitching adjoining the hem; all the foregoing, and fabrics and articles wholly or in part thereof, finished or unfinished (except materials and articles provided for in paragraph 915, 920, 1006, 1022,1111,1116(a), 1504,1505,1513,1518,1523, or 1530(e), or in Title II (free list) or in subparagraph (b) of this paragraph), by whatever name known, and to whatever use applied, and whether or not named, described, or provided for elsewhere in this Act, when composed wholly or in chief value of filaments, yams, threads, tinsel wire, lame, bullions, metal threads, beads, bugles, spangles or rayon or other synthetic textile, * * *.
Paragraph 1529 ( a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the supplemental agreement between the United States and Switzerland, swpra:
Insertings, edgings, * * * doilies, rounds, ovals, oblongs, squares, motifs, bureau or table scarfs and sets, piano scarfs, chair back and chair arm covers, antimacassars, * * *; all the foregoing, finished or unfinished, however provided for in paragraph 1529(a), Tariff Act of 1930, which are embroidered or tamboured and which are wholly or in chief value of cotton (not including any laces, lace fabrics, or lace articles, made in any part on a lace machine, or articles or materials embroidered or tamboured in any part by hand or otherwise than with the use of multiple-needle, Comely, or [76]*76Bonnaz embroidery machines, but not excluding articles or materials the edges of which are embroidered with the use of other machines and not excluding articles or materials by reason of the incidental ornamentation thereof by hand by means of spider work, faggoting, or similar stitches, extending across open-work resulting from the removal of a part of the fabric):
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Other- 45% ad val.
Paragraph 1559(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by the Customs Simplification Act of 1954, supra:
(a) Each and every imported article, not enumerated in this Act, which is similar in the use to which it may be applied to any article enumerated in this Act as chargeable with duty, shall be subject to the same rate of duty as the enumerated article which it most resembles in the particular before mentioned; and if any nonenumerated article equally resembles in that particular two or more enumerated articles on which different rates of duty are chargeable, it shall be subject to the rate of duty applicable to that one of such two or more articles which it most resembles in respect of the materials of which it is composed.
$ ‡ ‡ ‡
(c) If two or more enumerations shall be equally applicable to any article, it shall be subject to duty at the highest rate prescribed for any such enumeration.
Paragraph 1558 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Torquay Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, supra:
Articles manufactured, in whole or in part, not specially provided for (except * * *)___10% ad val.

The record originally made consisted of the testimony of one witness called on behalf of plaintiff and two samples of the merchandise received in evidence 'as plaintiff’s exhibits 1 and 2. The witness, Mr. Lawrence Ginsberg, chief buyer of textile merchandise for plaintiff, described the manufacture of the invqlvéd merchandise as observed by him as follows:

* * '* The process is as follows: These are made on large plates, probably made out of brass, maybe copper, I am not sure about the material, in which there is etched the exact design that appears on the scarf.

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Bluebook (online)
65 Cust. Ct. 73, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3079, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-york-merchandise-co-v-united-states-cusc-1970.