NFI Members Win Big In Federal Trade Court

August 28, 2009 Washington, DC – Customs and Border Protection unfairly targeted imported shrimp for excessive bonding requirements according to a federal judge’s ruling.

“It appears from the record that the decision to single out shrimp importers was motivated entirely by considerations other than any unique risk to the revenue that such
importers actually posed,” wrote Judge Timothy Stanceu.

The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) sued Customs and Border Protection on behalf of twenty-seven of its members over excessive bonding requirements that NFI argued were unreasonable and the court agreed.

According to the ruling, “customs chose to impose greatly expanded bonding requirements on the U.S. shrimp importing industry even though, as defendant admits, Customs had no reason to believe that shrimp importers posed any greater risk to the revenue than importers of other agricultural or aquacultural products.”

“Nearly four years after we first filed suit, this is a significant victory for our members,” said NFI President John Connelly. “We look forward to working with the surety companies to make certain that, going forward, these bonds reflect actual risk. Likewise, we are prepared to work with Customs in any way we can to help them quickly and properly redetermin the bonds.”

The court order says Customs has 60 days to redetermine the true value of the bonds in question.