Precision Specialty Metals, Inc.
Plaintiff v. United States of America

The United States Court of International Trade decided on December 14, 2001 in favor of Precision Specialty Metals, Inc., Plaintiff v. United States of America, Defendant, granting Precision Specialty Metals, Inc. a motion for summary judgment. U. S. Customs cross-motion denied.

In 1991, Precision Specialty Metals, Inc. (Precision) was granted drawback approval by U.S. Customs for steel products. Over the next several years, Precision filed numerous claims and was granted full benefit of drawback (paid refund checks) on many of them. In 1996, Customs decides to question whether or not Precision should have been granted drawback approval in the first place because now they feel some of the merchandise was not really eligible for drawback and issued a ruling which would disallow all the pending claims and no refund payments would be forthcoming. However, Precision contends Customs neglected to engage in a mandatory procedure called a "notice-and-comment" process prior to issuing this ruling which violates 19 U.S.C.§1625(c)(2) of the Customs Regulations. This procedure mandates that Customs must give the trade community a period of time to review and comment on any changes Customs plans on making.

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