DOJ Moves to Toss 16-Year Old Classification Case

A suit filed to contest the classification of photoresists and other chemical products should be tossed because the complaint was filed more than nine years after the denial of protests, DOJ said in an Oct. 20 motion to dismiss at the Court of International Trade (Tokyo Ohka Kogyo America v. U.S., CIT # 21-00371).

The 28 entries of photoresists at issue were entered at the Port of San Francisco in 2007 by importer Tokyo Ohka Kogyo America. The company timely protested the liquidation of its entries but then failed to challenge the denial of those protests in court within the required time frame, DOJ said. When Tokyo Okha filed its complaint in June, in said that its attorney never received notice of the protest denials until 2017. The case on the two protests was severed in 2021 from a separate court action also brought by Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (see 2306260053).

The protests claimed that CBP improperly classified the merchandise under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 3707.90.32 as "other chemical preparations for photographic use," dutiable at 3.2%, instead of under subheading 3707.10.00 as "sensitizing emulsions," dutiable at 3%.