The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a Nov. 21 order denied customs broker test taker Byungmin Chae's motion for an oral argument in his case seeking credit on a select number of test questions. The court said that the appeal will be submitted on their briefs without oral argument (Byungmin Chae v. Janet Yellen, Fed. Cir. #22-2017).
Licensed Customs Broker
Customs brokers are entities who assist importers in meeting federal requirements governing imports into the United States. Brokers can be private individuals, partnerships, associations or corporations licensed, regulated and empowered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Customs brokers oversee transactions related to customs entry and admissibility of merchandise, product classification, customs valuation, payment of duties, taxes, or other charges such as refunds, rebates, and duty drawbacks. To obtain a customs broker license, an individual must pass the U.S. Customs Broker License Exam. Customs brokers are not government employees and should not be confused with CBP officials. There are approximately 11,000 active licensed customs brokers in the United States.
The practice of providing tariff schedule subheadings for merchandise sold to customers is "customs business," and requires a customs broker license even if a disclaimer is included that the customer shouldn't rely on the classification, CBP determined in a Sept. 29 ruling, released on Oct. 22.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Oct. 22 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
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Customs broker license exam test taker Byungmin Chae filed an informal brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Oct. 3 in his bid to get credit for a handful of questions on the April 2018 customs broker license exam. Responding to the U.S.'s brief defending its answers for questions 5, 27 and 33 on the test, Chae further attempted to make his case for why his selected answers were correct (Byungmin Chae v. Janet Yellen, Fed. Cir. #22-2017).
CBP properly denied customs broker license exam test taker Byungmin Chae credit for questions 5, 27 and 33 of the April 2018 customs broker license exam, the U.S. argued in an Aug. 31 reply brief filed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. DOJ went through each question, detailing why CBP's answer was the correct one and why Chae's preferred answer was errant (Byungmin Chae v. Janet Yellen, Fed. Cir. #22-2017).
Byungmin Chae, who is contesting results of his customs broker license exam, filed his informal reply brief July 25 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Court of International Trade had dismissed five exam questions Chae appealed (see 2206060055). At the trade court, Judge Timothy Reif said CBP was right to dismiss Chae's appeal of four of the questions but said the agency wrongly denied the test taker's appeal for the fifth question. The reversal of the remaining question wasn't sufficient for a passing grade because Chae was two questions shy of the 75% threshold needed to pass the test. In his informal reply brief to the Federal Circuit, Chae said he is appealing only three questions from the April 2018 customs broker license exam (Byungmin Chae v. Secretary of the Treasury, CIT #20-00316).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Byungmin Chae, an individual who took the customs broker license exam, is appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit a Court of International Trade decision dismissing his appeal of five questions on the exam, according to the July 12 notice of appeal. At the trade court, Judge Timothy Reif said that CBP was right to dismiss Chae's appeal of four of the questions but that the agency wrongly denied the test taker's appeal for the fifth question (see 2206060055). The reversal of the remaining question was not enough for a passing grade, though, since Chae was two questions shy of the 75% threshold needed to pass the test before taking his case to court (Byungmin Chae v. Secretary of the Treasury, CIT #20-00316).
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