US Customs action against broker overturned by court

A RECENT ruling from the US Court of International Trade in New York has been described as an important victory for customs brokers.

In Lizarraga Customs Broker versus Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the court ruled that brokers can challenge actions by US Customs that could put them out of business if their ability to do business electronically was removed, reports the American Shipper.

The dispute stems from an incident in November 2008, when an assistant customs commissioner suspended the entry filer code for Guillermo Lizarraga Customs Broker of San Diego, California.

The report said Lizarraga did a lot of Mexico/US cross-border work, and the opinion quotes the assistant commissioner saying the suspension was necessary to prevent the code from being used to "facilitate smuggling narcotics" and use of Lizarraga's "licence, permit and filer code ... by Mexican nationals," said Lizarraga's lawyer, Arthur Purcell, of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, who added the allegations were never resolved.

Customs said that by using alternative filing procedures, Lizarraga could continue conducting business, but the broker contended those procedures would make it "virtually impossible to conduct business" and that "suspending a broker's entry filer code effectively put him out of business.

"Without access to an entry filer code in today's electronic environment plaintiff cannot compete with other brokers who have such filer codes. Without a filer code, plaintiff will be forced to spend many hours manually filing entries, incur delays in processing, and be required to immediately pay estimated duties at the time of filing," said Lizarraga's lawyers.

Customs agreed to take no action against Lizarraga's entry filer code until the court ruled on the preliminary injunction.

"The ruling would appear to be final and binding, and not likely to be appealed, since it is based in large part on a confession of judgment made after almost two years of hard-fought litigation," said Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg in an advisory to clients.

"Prior to this litigation, customs could merely claim filer code misuse, without proving it, to immediately put a broker out of business by effectively suspending or revoking the broker's licence without due process protections the law affords," said Mr Purcell. "Mr Lizarraga deserves enormous credit for being the first broker to stand up to this unconstitutional agency action."
(Source:www.schednet.com)