Plastic Production Chemical Accelerator a 'Supported Catalyst,' Importer Argues Again
Importer Lanxess argued again Oct. 31 that its polymerization accelerator -- a substance used to accelerate the chemical process of plastic manufacturing -- is properly classified as a “supported catalyst,” not as a chemical preparation (Lanxess Corporation v. United States, CIT # 23-00073).
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Lanxess also said the government’s tentative request to file a counterclaim in place of a cross motion for judgment was untimely (see 2509150066). The government couldn’t do so without amending its answer to Lanxess’ complaint, and the deadline for that has long since passed, the importer said.
It further objected on practical grounds. If the U.S. wanted to file a counterclaim, it said, it shouldn’t have waited to make its request “over two years into the litigation, after discovery has closed.”
Lanxess’ substance at issue, Axion CA 1330, is an organometallic product made from methylaluminoxane (MAO) and trimethylaluminum in a toluene solvent, the importer has explained (see 2508060064). It acts as an accelerator in the olefin polymerization process.
The importer brought its case saying Axion CA 1330 should have been classified by CBP under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 3815, which covers supported catalysts, rather than under CBP’s chosen heading, 3208, or the government’s preference, 3814. Heading 3208 covers solutions, while heading 3814 covers preparations of the chemical industry.
It said the U.S. definition of a “reaction accelerator” covered under heading 3815 was “unnecessarily limited.” The government argued that heading 3815 only covers a substance that serves as “the catalytic center” of a molecule, but this isn’t supported by the text of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, it claimed.
The catalytic center, it said, is the place “where the reactions that the catalyst system is meant to accelerate occur.” Even though Axion CA 1330 isn’t the catalytic center of its supported catalyst system, it is still “the main part of the catalyst system and creates and sustains the catalytic center,” it said.
The General Rules of Interpretation for HTS support classification under heading 3815, Lanxess said. And the explanatory notes for heading 3815 discuss “Ziegler or Ziegler-Natta type” catalyst systems as examples of products that fall under the heading. Like Axion CA 1330, Ziegler-Natta catalyst systems are made of two separate components and a supporting agent, it said.
“Important to the Court’s analysis, the Ziegler-Natta system components cannot be combined until ready for use, which is after importation,” it said.