Some of Neville Peterson LLP's most noteworthy recent accomplishments include the following:

• Representation of hundreds of exporters in litigation which resulted in a judicial determination that the Harbor Maintenance Tax is unconstitutional, as assessed with respect to waterborne exports. The litigation paves the way for exporters to receive up to $1 billion in tax refunds;
  
  
• Establishment of manufacturing Foreign Trade Zones for United States manufacturers, including a beverage concentrate FTZ in Puerto Rico and a pharmaceutical manufacturing FTZ in Southern California;
  
  
• Appointed editor of Customs Law and Administration, Oceana Publications, the definitive loose leaf treatise on U.S. Customs law;
  
  
• Firm authorship of a biweekly "Customs Update" column in the nationally-distributed Journal of Commerce newspaper;
  
  
• Hosting a weekly "Ask the Experts" Internet "chat room" discussion on the Import-Export Bulletin Board (IEBB) website;
  
  
• Successful representation of the plaintiff in Delverde, SrL v. United States and related litigation resolving fundamental issues of antidumping and countervailing duty law arising from the Uruguay Round Agreements Act;
  
  
• Successful inclusion of various clients' products in the scope of the "Information Technology Agreement", a treaty negotiated under auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and which seeks to eliminate tariffs in technology trade by the year 2000;
  
  
• Representation of the plaintiff in CPC International, Inc. v. United States, a lawsuit which resulted in a 1997 Court of International Trade decision holding that the United States Customs Service could not lawfully apply its NAFTA Marking Rules to country of origin marking determinations under the country of origin marking statute, 19 U.S.C. Section 1304;
  
  
• Representation of the plaintiff in Holford USA Inc. v. United States, in which the United States Court of International Trade overturned a Customs Service decision, and awarded the plaintiff an 18-month waiver from the new textile and apparel rules of origin set out at Section 334 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act;
  
  
• Successful representation of a major United States importer and retailer in an antidumping investigation of Bicycles from China;
  
  
• Representation of a major United States manufacturer and exporter in a pending antidumping investigation, conducted by the Mexican government, concerning imports of High Fructose Corn Syrup from the United States of America;
  
  
• Participation of firm members as Panelists and Assistants in NAFTA Chapter 19 Binational Dispute Resolution Panels in proceedings involving antidumping claims against Canadian steel products, Canadian magnesium, U.S. beer, U.S. steel, and Mexican cement;
  
  
• Securing favorable Customs rulings concerning the tariff classification of digital multifunction devices, and concerning the separate classification and appraisement of computer software permanently embedded in imported computer "hardware";
  
  
• Representation of the United States pencil manufacturing industry (through the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association) in successful proceedings to secure an antidumping duty order against Cased Pencils from the People's Republic of China;
  
  
• Representation of plaintiffs in American Frozen Food Institute et al. v. United States, et al, at June 9, 1994 United States Court of International Trade decision which struck down Treasury Decision 94-5, an unlawful attempt to impose special country of origin marking requirements on United States importers and distributors of frozen food products;
  
  
• Representation of the plaintiff in Ross Cosmetics Distribution Centers, Inc. v. United States, a lawsuit which invalidated the Customs Service's methodology for characterizing imported merchandise as 'counterfeit", and which limited Customs' ability to seize merchandise in cases where domestic trademark owners have not registered their marks for import protection;
  
  
• Securing favorable Customs rulings for two manufacturers, holding that down comforters manufactured in Canada qualified to enter the United States as "NAFTA originating". The rulings stimulated substantial investment in Canada and allowed the manufacturers to lawfully avoid a U.S. quota embargo;
  
  
• Securing the first published Customs ruling under NAFTA's Arepairs or alterations" provisions, which paved the way for a client to establish a duty free industrial reclamation plant in Mexico;
  
  
• Performing an import compliance audit for a domestic manufacturer which identified a $5 million annual duty saving on export operations under NAFTA;
  
  
• Representation of an importer in a Customs audit of imported goods which had been "repaired or altered" in Mexico, and which resulted in refunds of more than $4 million in excess Customs duties collected from the importer.