Court Opinion

ID: 9724350
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:53:48.189781+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:59.591686
License: Public Domain

BOE, Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the well-reasoned opinion of Judge Scovel Richardson. In so doing, however, I feel constrained to comment with further particularity on certain contentions of the defendant in support of the negative determination of the Secretary of the Treasury involved in the instant cause of action.
The defendant warns that a determination by this court that the remission of the Japanese commodity tax on the exports in question constitutes a bounty or grant would have a disastrous effect upon the political and economic policies and relationships of this country. In this connection I cannot refrain from observing that the courts are urged with increased frequency to resolve their determinations in the light of prophesied economic or political crises, notwithstanding judicial rationale or statutory construction to the contrary. Indeed, the resolution of any cause of action by a court must necessarily include a consideration of all facts and information which may have an appropriate and relevant bearing on the ultimate determination. However, if a decision of a court shall be predicated on the basis of political and economic expedience and, in so doing, shall ignore judicial precepts and the statutory mandates of the Congress, then assuredly, an erosion of the basic constitutional doctrine of the separation of powers results. The judiciary should not nor cannot serve as the alter ego of the Executive or the Congress.
In seeking affirmation by this court of the administrative determination by the *260Secretary of the Treasury finding that the remission of the Japanese commodity tax on the merchandise in question destined for exportation to the United States does not constitute a bounty or grant, the defendant appears to rest its argument on two principal contentions:
(1) The legislative history relating to the adoption of the Tariff Acts of 1890, 1894 and 1897 evidences an intent on the part of Congress to exclude the remission of an indirect excise tax by a foreign nation upon exports from the provisions of our countervailing duty statute, and
(2) The omission on the part of Congress to enact legislation altering or repudiating the administrative interpretation of our countervailing duty statute constitutes a legislative approval and sanction of the Treasury Department interpretation.
I
I am unable to concur in the contention of the defendant that the legislative history of the congressional action relating to the Tariff Acts of 1890, 1894 and 1897 serves to reflect the intent of Congress to exclude the remission of an indirect excise tax from the classification of a bounty or grant under our present countervailing duty statute. The remarks by members of Congress while in floor debate, referred to in defendant’s briefs, give scant legal justification to the administrative interpretation adopted and presently urged by the Treasury Department. The colloquy engaged in by the members of Congress rather would appear to emphasize the dubious familiarity and understanding on their part with respect not only to the provisions of the German Sugar Act in question, but the specific legislation under their immediate consideration. To adopt an interpretation of our countervailing duty statute upon a presumed legislative intent predicated upon the apparent limited and conflicting understanding evidenced by statements then made by some of the members of Congress, indeed, would do violence to the rules of statutory construction.
No more clear, concise or unambiguous definition of the terms “bounty” or “grant,” first included in the countervailing duty provisions of the Tariff Act of 1897 and in all subsequent countervailing duty statutes enacted thereafter, can be given than the meaning expressed by the Court in Downs v. United States, 187 U.S. 496 (1903) at 515, 23 S.Ct. at 228:
When a tax is imposed upon all sugar produced, but is remitted upon all sugar exported, then, by whatever process, or in whatever manner, or under whatever name it is disguised, it is a bounty upon exportation.
In like manner, the Court therein has clearly indicated that in construing what may constitute a “bounty” or “grant,” no distinction lies between a direct and an indirect tax, nor that a distinction lies between a remission of a tax and a direct payment or subsidy (at 502, 23 S.Ct. at 223):
A bounty may be direct, as where a certain amount is paid upon the production or exportation of particular articles, of which the act of Congress of 1890, allowing a bounty upon the production of sugar, and Rev.Stat. sections 3015-3027, allowing a drawback upon certain articles exported, are examples; or indirect, by the remission of taxes upon the exportation of articles which are subjected to a tax when sold or consumed in the country of their production, of which our laws, permitting distillers of spirits to export the same without payment of an internal revenue tax or other burden, is an example. United States v. Passavant, 169 U.S. 16, 18 S.Ct. 219, 42 L.Ed. 74. [Emphasis supplied.]
The import of the foregoing quotations cannot be disclaimed by terming the same to be dicta.
The defendant, however, further urges that the term “net amount” of a bounty, as first used in the Tariff Act of 1897 and thereafter in all subsequent countervailing duty statutes, must be construed conceptually and in point of time with the provisions of the prior Tariff Acts of 1890 and 1894. *261This contention likewise is based principally upon the exchange between the members of the Congress in floor debates and discussions with respect to the prior Tariff Acts of 1890 and 1894 as well as the Tariff Act of 1897 then under consideration, and the respective relationship of these acts to sugar acts of foreign nations, principally Germany. From this premise the government contends that the term “net amount,” per se, excludes the remission of a nonexcessive excise tax from the purview of our countervailing duty statute. No explanation or legislative intent other than the hypothesis of the defendant appears to have been offered with respect to the term “net amount,” first incorporated as a part of the countervailing duty provision of the Tariff Act of 1897 and included all countervailing duty statutes enacted subsequent thereto.
The intent of the Congress in the use of the term “net amount” may be understood more readily when viewed in the light of the economic and legislative history relating to the German sugar industry during the last decade of the nineteenth century. Throughout this period sugar exports increased greatly, occasioned in large measure by the payment of government bounties. Accordingly, complicated mechanisms to control the bounties paid to sugar exporters on the one hand and to alleviate the resulting economic burden thrust upon the domestic consumer were initiated, modified and amended by successive German tax laws.1
A reoccurring burden necessarily fell upon the Congress to enact legislation providing for countervailing duties at specific rates to “keep pace” with the rapidly changing German tax laws and procedures and the fluctuating bounties occasioned thereby. The need for a countervailing duty statute unrestricted by a specific percentage amount and sufficiently elastic in determination to effect the regulation of any exports from any foreign country was clearly evident.
The Tariff Act of 1897 provided the first countervailing duty provisions of general application. This statute is characterized by a language far more broad and inclusive than the language contained in the Tariff Act of 1890 and 1894 in which the countervailing duty provisions were directed solely to sugar exported from countries which continued, in turn, to enact involved and intricate tax mechanisms in connection with their domestic production and consumption of this commodity as contrasted with the exportation thereof. The Act expanded the scope of the Tariff Act of 1894 by specifically deleting the provision of that Act which limited the application of the statute to excessive tax remissions only. As Judge Richardson appropriately noted in American Express Company v. United States, 67 Cust.Ct. 141, 150-151, C.D. 4266, aff’d on other grounds, C.A.D. 1087, 472 F.2d 1050, 60 CCPA 86 (1973):
[W]ith the advent of the decision of the Supreme Court in Downs, it is clear that if Congress had wanted to nullify the effect of the decision in that case it could easily have done so through reenactment of a successor provision to section 5 of the 1897 Tariff Act (or amended the statute) that expressly excluded tax remissions from its ambit, akin to its treatment of that subject in paragraph 182V2 of the 1894 Tariff Act. The fact that Congress has never done so is, in our opinion, indicative that it approves of the holding in Downs, by reason of which, that case represents the law on the subject of tax remissions to date insofar as the question of “bounties” is concerned.
The Congress also chose to include such meaningful terms and phrases in the Tariff Act of 1897 as:
“pay or bestow,” “directly or indirectly,” “any bounty or grant,” “net amount of *262such bounty or grant,” “however the same be paid or bestowed” and “[t]he net amount of all such bounties or grants shall be from time to time ascertained, determined, and declared by the Secretary of the Treasury * * *.”
The inclusion of these terms as well as the significance of their inclusion has been noted by the Supreme Court. In its consideration of the aforequoted language and in answer to the argument of petitioner’s counsel therein, which closely parallels the contentions now urged by the defendant in this proceeding, the Court in the case of Nicholas & Co. v. United States, 249 U.S. 34, 39 S.Ct. 218, 63 L.Ed. 461 (1919), at 38-39, 39 S.Ct. at 220 stated:
In further support of their distinctions counsel cite the executive practice of this country, and adduce the decisions of this and other courts to show that such practice is a useful resolvent of the meaning of words and of legislative intention.
We appreciate the strength of the argument, but the circumstances are but aids to persuasion; they do not compel it. Every new statute is individual and presents its own problem. That before us does, and, as we have said, looking at its words alone, has no uncertainty of purpose. Whenever any country “shall pay or bestow, directly or indirectly, any bounty or grant upon the exportation of any article or merchandise,” there shall be levied and paid upon it, upon importation, in addition to the regular duty, an additional one “equal to the net amount of such bounty or grant, however the same be paid or bestowed.” The statute was addressed to a condition, and its words must be considered as intending to define it, and all of them — “grant” as well as “bounty” — must be given effect. If the word “bounty” has a limited sense, the word “grant” has not. A word of broader significance than “grant” could not have been used. Like its synonyms “give” and “bestow,” it expresses a concession, the conferring of something by one person upon another. And if the “something” be conferred by a country “upon the exportation of any article or merchandise,” a countervailing duty is required by Paragraph E. [Emphasis supplied.]
The absence of a specific reference to the words “net amount” in prior decisions does not justify the application of an esoteric meaning to the term. The word “net” as used therein should be given no other connotation than its ordinary meaning. American Customs Brokg. Co., Inc., a/c Hamakua Mill Co. v. United States, 433 F.2d 1340, 58 CCPA 45 (1970). The use of the word “net” permits the application of the statute with equal facility in the determination of the amount of a bounty paid under differing laws of any foreign nation. Thus, in ascertaining the “net amount” of a bounty or grant, the opportunity exists to consider whether a bounty may have been paid either in full or in part or whether the bounty in question may have been offset in full or in part by other charges consistent with the law of the foreign nation from which the exports have been received. In short, the term “net” has been used to afford the Secretary of the Treasury a criterion to determine the appropriate amount ,of a countervailing duty which may be applied to the respective exports which have been the beneficiary of differing bounties of any foreign nation. Clearly, however, the criterion used to determine the proper amount of a countervailing duty includes both nonexeessive and excessive tax remissions. Accordingly, when it has been determined that a bounty or grant has been paid by a foreign nation upon its exports, the duty and responsibility of the Secretary of the Treasury lies only and solely in the power delegated to him by the Congress to determine the “net amount” thereof.
In light of the foregoing, the construction and interpretation urged by the defendant cannot be accepted by this court.
II
If, as the defendant contends, a longstanding administrative interpretation of the countervailing duty statute should alone dictate the presently accepted legal con*263struction thereof, then, indeed, judicial review becomes a mockery. It is acknowledged that, “[t]he interpretation of a statute by an agency charged with its enforcement is a substantial factor to be considered in construing the statute, New York Dept. of Social Services v. Dublino, 413 U.S. 405, 421, 93 S.Ct. 2507, 2516-17, 37 L.Ed.2d 688, 699 (1973); Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Democratic Comm., 412 U.S. 94, 121, 93 S.Ct. 2080, 2095-96, 36 L.Ed.2d 772, 794 (1973) * * *.” Youakim et al. v. Miller, 425 U.S. 231, 235-236, 96 S.Ct. 1399, 1402, 47 L.Ed.2d 701 (1976). However, it must also be acknowledged that in the construction of a statute an “expressly articulated position” should be adopted at the administrative level. Investment Co. Institute v. Camp, 401 U.S. 617, 91 S.Ct. 1091, 28 L.Ed.2d 367 (1971). Where it appears that the statutory interpretation by a department or agency is in error, judicial approbation should not be given. In the recent case of Espinoza v. Farah Mfg. Co., Inc., 414 U.S. 86, 94-95, 94 S.Ct. 334, 339, 38 L.Ed.2d 287 (1973), the United States Supreme Court clearly recognized this limitation upon the independent exercise of administrative statutory construction:
The Commission’s more recent interpretation of the statute in the guideline relied on by the District Court is no doubt entitled to great deference, Griggs v. Duke Power Co., supra, 401 U.S. 424 at 434, 91 S.Ct. 849, 855, 28 L.Ed.2d 158; Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp., 400 U.S. 542, 545, 91 S.Ct. 496, 498, 27 L.Ed.2d 613 (1971) (Marshall, J., concurring), but that deference must have limits where, as here, application of the guideline would be inconsistent with an obvious congressional intent not to reach the employment practice in question. Courts need not defer to an administrative construction of a statute where there are “compelling indications that it is wrong.” Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 395 U.S. 367, 381, 89 S.Ct. 1794, 1802, 23 L.Ed.2d 371 (1969); see also Zuber v. Allen, 396 U.S. 168, 193, 90 S.Ct. 314, 328, 24 L.Ed.2d 345 (1969); Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft v. FMC, 390 U.S. 261, 272, 88 S.Ct. 929, 935, 19 L.Ed.2d 1090 (1968).
The defendant has urged that ambiguity in the countervailing duty statute justifies the acceptance of the long-standing interpretation applied by the Secretary of the Treasury.2 A careful examination of the countervailing duty provisions contained in the original Act of 1897 and reenacted in all subsequent countervailing duty statutes neither reflects the ambiguity alleged by the defendant, nor sustains the “reasonability” of the interpretation adhered to by the Secretary of the Treasury. Particularly, is this true in light of the clear construction of the statute and the specific terms “bounty” and “grant” contained therein by the Supreme Court in the cases of Downs v. United States, 187 U.S. 496, 23 S.Ct. 222, 47 L.Ed. 275 (1903) and Nicholas & Co. v. United States, supra.
What then is the real question before us in this proceeding? To no extent can it be said that the issue is limited to a question involving a recognized right of a governmental department to interpret a statute, the provisions of which it is charged to enforce. Rather, the basic question before *264us is whether the Secretary of the Treasury shall have the right and be permitted to continue to interpret the provisions of our countervailing duty statute contrary to its explicit and unambiguous language and contrary to the interpretation and construction previously placed thereon by the highest Court of our land. The answer can only be, no.
In the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C., sec. 2101), under which statute we are guided in this action, Congress has laid to rest with finality any question as to its intent with respect to the construction of the countervailing duty statute. In section 331 thereof, amending sections 303 and 516 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C., secs. 1303, 1516), substantially the same language contained in prior countervailing duty statutes has again been incorporated. However, it will be noted that in section 303(d), the Congress affirmatively has recognized the very international economic and political problems, which the defendant in this action has directed to the attention of this court. To these problems the Congress has responded. In so doing, the Congress:
1. Underscores its desire and objective that the President “ * * * seek through negotiations the establishment of internationally agreed rules and procedures governing the use of subsidies (and other export incentives) and the application of countervailing duties.” (19 U.S.C., sec. 1303(d)(1).)
2. In keeping with this objective, the Congress does not require the imposition of the countervailing duty provisions for a period of four (4) years from the date of the enactment of the Trade Act if:
a. The Secretary of the Treasury determines adequate steps have been taken to reduce substantially or eliminate the adverse effect of a bounty or grant, and that
b. a reasonable prospect exists that successful trade agreements will be entered into reducing or eliminating the trade barriers in question, and
c. imposition of the additional countervailing duty would be likely to seriously jeopardize the completion of such negotiations.3
Any decision not to impose the appropriate countervailing duty of the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to the foregoing delegated authority is required to be reported to the Congress, either body of which may disapprove the decision of the Secretary, thereby restoring the immediate and full application of the countervailing duty provisions.4
From the foregoing, it is clear that the Congress has reaffirmed not only to the executive branch of this government, but to all nations, its approval of the judicial construction placed upon the countervailing duty statutes of the United States. At the same time, however, a procedure is provided to assist in the resolution of international problems relating to bounties, grants and subsidies through negotiation and the establishment of internationally agreed rules.5
*265Many of the issues and the facts relating thereto which have been presented to this court were likewise presented to the Congress at the time of its consideration of the Trade Act of 1974. Had the Congress intended to exclude the remission and/or exemption of a nonexcessive excise tax from the classification of a bounty or grant, it could and would have done so. It has chosen not to so do, but rather to open the door to discussion and negotiation among the nations. To construe our recently enacted countervailing duty statute in conformity with the interpretation urged by the defendant not only would disregard the statutory intent of the Congress, but would thwart the very objective it seeks to attain through negotiation and agreement.
It having been determined in the proceeding that the remission of the Japanese commodity tax upon the electronic products which are the subject of this action constitutes a bounty or grant under our present countervailing duty statute (19 U.S.C., sec. 1303), the instant action, accordingly, should be remanded to the Secretary of the Treasury to determine and assess an additional duty equal to the net amount of the bounty or grant bestowed upon such products exported from Japan and entered into the United States from and after the entry of judgment herein.
ORDER
Upon reading and filing plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and defendant’s cross-motion for summary judgment, and upon all other papers and proceedings had herein, it is hereby
ORDERED that plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment be, and the same is granted, and it is further
ORDERED that defendant’s cross-motion for summary judgment be, and the same is, denied.
ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the exemption, under the Commodity Tax Law of Japan, of television receivers, radio receivers, radio-phonograph combinations, radio-television-phonograph combinations, radio-tape recorder combinations, record players and phonographs complete with amplifiers and speakers, tape recorders, tape players, and color television picture tubes (hereinafter “subject electronic products”) from a commodity tax, when exported from Japan, or the refund of such tax on the exportation from Japan of the subject electronic products, constitutes the payment or bestowal of a net bounty or grant within the embrace of section 303 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C, § 1303); and
The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to ascertain and-determine or estimate the net amounts of the bounty or grant paid or bestowed on the exportation of the subject electronic products from Japan and to order the appropriate customs officers throughout the United States to assess countervailing duties, in said net amounts equal to the said bounty or grant, on the subject electronic products exported from Japan, entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after the day following the date of entry of this Order.

. In 1894 and 1895, sugar exports were reported to have constituted 72% of the total German production. In a single year more than $30,-000,000 was paid as bounties to sugar exporters from German internal sugar tax revenues totaling more than $40,000,000. German internal revenue taxes were amended or new taxes enacted in 1887, 1892, 1893 and 1896. Reciprocity, J. Laurence Laughlin, Ph.D. and H. Parker Willis, Ph.D. (New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1903).

. The present interpretation urged by the defendant is contrary to the interpretation offered by the defendant in its briefs to the Supreme Court in the Downs and Nicholas cases. The position of the government therein is reflected by the following statement:
Furthermore, if a foreign government should object to our drawbacks or remission of internal taxes as unduly encouraging our export trade to that government’s detriment, in its own markets, and as amounting in practical effect to an indirect bounty, we might successfully urge our diplomatic resistance to that view, but I can not see that we should have conclusive legal ground for resisting simply because it was an ordinary tax remission or drawback in our municipal system.
* * * For it seems that any special favor, benefit, advantage, or inducement conferred by the Government, even if it is given as a release from burden and is not a direct charge upon the Treasury, is fairly included in the idea and meaning of an indirect bounty. [Brief for The United States, in The Supreme Court of the United States, October Term 1902, on Writ of Certiorari, Downs v. United States, No. 318 at 23-24, 25.]

. 19 U.S.C., sec. 1303(d)(2)(a)(b)(c).

. 19 U.S.C., sec. 1303(e)(l)(2).

. The report of the Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, in the consideration of this legislation is illustrative of the realization by the Congress of the need to provide discretionary authority on the part of the Secretary of the Treasury to withhold the application of the countervailing duty provisions if the same may prove counterproductive during the course of negotiations.
The 4-year temporary discretionary authority was accorded because of the very real danger that the mandatory provisions of section 303, combined with the committee’s amendment providing for a 12-month time limit for action under this section, could compel the Secretary to take actions which might well frustrate the successful outcome of the forthcoming negotiations. The committee is aware that there are differences of opinion internationally as to what constitute permissible and nonpermissible export assists under international law and practice, and that the negotiation of an agreement on this issue may prove difficult. The committee has no desire to sanction certain existing export-assist practices conducted by various foreign governments. It also recognizes that the United States itself may well be conducting programs of export-assists which foreign *265governments may find inconsistent with international law and policy.
With this background, the Secretary of the Treasury must be temporarily accorded some degree of latitude in administering section 303 until an international agreement is reached regarding the international practices which would be considered permissible and nonpermissible. Otherwise the Secretary of the Treasury may conceivably be constrained to take countervailing action under section 303 against a practice which ultimately may be internationally agreed to be a permissible international export assist. The discretionary authority accorded herein has been restricted to 4 years to facilitate the international negotiations. It has been accorded on the understanding that the U.S. negotiators will report regularly to the Congress on the progress and ultimately on the outcome of the negotiations with respect to international export assists. The committee assumes that it may be necessary to further amend section 303 depending upon the outcome of these negotiations, assuming that they terminate in an agreement acceptable to the United States. [Emphasis supplied.] [H.R. 10710, House Committee on Ways and Means, House Report No. 93-571, 93d Cong., 1st Sess., October 10, 1973, at 75-76.]