Customs Broker Exam Taker Files for Rehearing of CAFC Opinion Denying Credit on 1 Question
Byungmin Chae filed a petition May 9 for a rehearing of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit opinion that landed him one question shy of passing the customs broker exam he took in April 2018. The multiple choice question asked which mail articles are not subject to CBP examination or inspection (Byungmin Chae v. Janet Yellen, Fed. Cir. # 22-2017).
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Chae had selected as the answer a package to a government official with merchandise, but the court refused to grant Chae credit for the question, saying that a package to a government official containing merchandise cannot be exempted regardless of any difference in meaning between "shall be passed free of duty" and "examination or inspection by Customs" as laid out in federal regulations (see 2304250044).
Chae claimed the packages in his preferred answer did not include any official documents but just the merchandise, precluding the use of regulation 19 CFR 145.37(c) as relied on by CBP and the court. He also said the question presumes all packages are coming from international sources, "which you cannot find anywhere in the CFR 19 regulation."
Chae originally scored 65%, appealing his results twice to CBP, which then raised his score to 71.25%. Still needing credit on three more questions, he contested five questions at the Court of International Trade and received credit for one. Chae, representing himself, then appealed questions 5, 27 and 33 to the Federal Circuit. That court granted him credit for one of those questions, leaving him just one question shy of a passing grade.