Well Luck Co., Inc. v. United States

The merchandise “consists of three varieties of wet-cooked and/or roasted, salted, flavored, and/or unflavored sunflower seeds in unbroken shells: All Natural Flavor, Spiced Flavor, and Coconut Flavor” for human consumption and not for the extraction of oils or fats. After initial processing and selection, the sunflower seeds are heated in an oven. Salt is added, the seeds are cooled, and those in unbroken shells are packaged into bags sold for consumption and imported. The subject merchandise is not interchangeable with: raw sunflower seeds; sunflower seeds that only undergo heat treatment to preserve them, to inactivate antinutritional factors, or to facilitate their use; or sunflower seeds that are not roasted, salted, and flavored. Customs classified the merchandise under HTSUS Subheading 2008.19.90 at a duty rate of 17.9 %. That Subheading covers “[f]ruit, nuts and other edible parts of plants, otherwise prepared or preserved, whether or not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter or spirit, not elsewhere specified or included: [n]uts, peanuts (groundnuts) and other seeds, whether or not mixed together: [o]ther, including mixtures: [o]ther.” The importer argued that the merchandise should enter at a duty-free rate under HTSUS Subheading 1206.00.00, which covers “[s]unflower seeds, whether or not broken.” The Trade Court and Federal Circuit upheld Customs’ classification. View "Well Luck Co., Inc. v. United States" on Justia Law