Importer, US Progress Toward Settlement in Customs Suit on Origin of PET Film From Bahrain
Importer JBF Bahrain and the U.S. are progressing toward a settlement of the importer's customs case on CBP's denial of duty-free treatment under the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement for the company's polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film imports. Filing a joint status report on March 12 at the Court of International Trade, JBF said it has "resolved technical issues and provided document production to the defendant," while the U.S., through CBP, continues to examine "representative samples of the raw materials, intermediate product, and imported product" (JBF Bahrain v. United States, CIT # 23-00067).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
JBF brought the suit in 2023 to challenge CBP's treatment of its products and the agency's refusal to deduct a post-import rebate from the price paid for the PET chips, which are a component of PET film (see 2303160035). JBF said its PET film met the 35% value content standard because the raw materials, including the PET chips, were substantially transformed before being used in film production and became originating materials after undergoing double substantial transformation.
CBP treated the chips as non-originating material for the minimum value content calculation and said the products didn't satisfy the 35% value content requirement found in the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement.
In the joint status report, the U.S. said "CBP’s Laboratories and Scientific Services continue to examine" samples of the raw materials, intermediate product and imported good to see if the finished product meets the trade deal's rules of origin requirements. "The results of that analysis may inform CBP’s views on settlement," the report said.