Bamboo Furniture Importer Says CBP Illegally Stripped It of Section 301 Exclusion

CBP improperly levied Section 301 duties against Greenington's bamboo furniture imports from China, the importer argued in a Nov. 27 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Greenington said CBP wasn't supported in finding that its entries didn't qualify for a Section 301 exclusion under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 9903.88.67, which covers "household furniture of high-pressure laminated bamboo, other than babies' or children's furniture" set under subheading 9403.82.0015 (Greenington v. United States Customs and Border Protection, CIT # 23-00243).

Because of CBP's "erroneous interpretation of the exclusion language," Greenington said, it had to pay nearly $50 million in Section 301 duties, plus interest that CBP billed to the importer.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative initially granted the exclusion in February 2020 under secondary subheading 9903.99.38, extending it in August 2020. While the exclusion expired on Dec. 31, 2020, it was reinstated in March 2022 and applied retroactively until Oct. 12, 2021, and effective until Dec. 31, 2022, this time claimed under secondary subheading 9903.88.67. The exclusion was again extended, this time until Sept. 30, 2023.

Greenington's entries were brought in between Aug. 19, 2022, and Oct. 12, 2022, when the exclusion was in effect. The imports consist of bamboo furniture constructed of "high-pressure laminated bamboo." Each part of the furniture imported by the company has multiple layers of bamboo strips or panels. However, CBP said the exclusion doesn't apply since the goods don't "correlate to the very specific construction method" required to receive the duty relief. The agency based its decision on "open source data, the manufacturing details and available catalogs."

A CBP import specialist said the exclusion only applies to bamboo furniture made of lumber and sheet comprising an HPL laminate atop an engineered bamboo substrate, "and not simply of bamboo lumber and sheet made under high pressure of bamboo laminates." The top layer must be high-pressure laminate made by a specific process.

In its complaint, Greenington said the scope of the exclusion "is governed by the scope of the product descriptions" and not "by the product descriptions found in any particular request for exclusion." The exclusion language "characterizes 'bamboo' as 'high-pressure laminated.'" The importer said its furniture is made of laminated bamboo formed at high pressure, putting it squarely within the scope of the exclusion.