Frozen Fruit Importer Appeals CIT Decision in Fruit Mixtures Classification Dispute

A frozen fruit importer appealed Jan. 11 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit seeking to overturn the Court of International Trade’s May 30 ruling that 14 types of its fruit mixtures should be classified as “other” frozen fruits, not “food preparations not elsewhere specified,” under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (Nature's Touch Frozen Foods (West) v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-2093).

Nature’s Touch Frozen Foods lost its CIT case in May after Judge Stephen Vaden said its merchandise was fully described under heading 0811, which covers “Fruit … frozen” (see 2305260048).

CIT’s ruling was flawed because it assumed that the word “fruit,” as it appeared in the heading, was “an eo nomine provision of the tariff,” the importer said. Precedent indicates that, instead, the subheading descriptions should be treated as eo nomine, not the heading, it said.

CIT and the government rely on the proposition that all of the ingredients in the fruit mixtures can be described fully under the “Fruit … frozen” heading, Nature’s Touch said. In actuality, no subheading underneath it directly applies, it argued; the “other” subheading in heading 0811 doesn't describe mixtures of different fruits, and so isn't applicable to its products.

CIT also failed to follow the General Rules of Interpretation, the importer said. Those rules require that, for example, “products such as strawberries and raspberries, classified in subheadings 0811.10 and 0811.20, HTSUS, respectively, cannot be classified in the 'other' subheading,” it said, when part of mixtures of fruits.

“The Trade Court’s decision classifying all of Plaintiff's imported mixed fruit preparations under subheading 0811.90.80, HTSUS, must be reversed, not only because it disregards this venerable maxim of tariff construction, but also the modern tools of construction provided in General Rules of Interpretation 1 and 6,” Nature’s Touch said.

Instead, the fruit mixtures should be classified under heading 2106, which covers “food preparations, not elsewhere specified or included,” it said.