The win allows India's petition against customs bonds, which it had challenged at the WTO level. India is expecting a decision of the organisation's panel in the matter soon.
AJ Tharakan, national president of the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) which had filed the case against the bonds before the CIT along with Gourmet Fusion Foods Inc and International Creative Foods Inc, said that the decision of the court to hear SEAI's case was a major victory for India which had been arguing that the bonds were against international trade practices.
The US Bureau of Customs Border Protection (CBP) had issued directives for collection of bonds matching the duty as security.
India argued that the CBP lacked statutory authority to require bonds as security for payment of anti-dumping duty was already secured by cash deposits. Hence, the promulgation of the bond directive was violation of the Act, arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and also not in accordance with the law.
CBP argued that the plaintiffs had lacked standing because they had failed to demonstrate that they were adversely affected by an agency action.
Equally, their interests were with the zone of interest protection by the statutes under which they brought their claim.