Hardware & Lumber loses customs appeal as J$27.36m assessment stands

Hardware & Lumber’s challenge to an additional customs assessment failed on 22 September 2026. Justice Carole Barnaby confirmed the Revenue Appeals Division’s J$27,357,501.73 assessment and awarded Customs its appeal costs. The dispute followed an audit of imports during 2016–2018 and concerned pest-control products and preferential treatment for European goods.

The court corrected the classification of two composite rat traps, treating their metal components as giving them their essential character, but the 20% duty remained. It also corrected the classification of a slug-and-snail pesticide without changing its 5% rate. A classification error therefore did not, by itself, establish entitlement to the lower duties sought.

The judge held that the relevant Jamaican tariff resolution incorporated the Economic Partnership Agreement’s origin requirements. Importers could use either prescribed proof route, including qualifying invoice declarations; Hardware & Lumber’s declarations did not meet the conditions. Customs, meanwhile, could not restore assessments on matters outside the taxpayer’s appeal.

Report of the delivered decision. Later appeals or variations have not been checked.