DETROIT (March 12, 2001) — A group of truck stop owners is rallying to fight a U.S. federal court ruling that a Detroit entrepreneur should be allowed to sell diesel fuel at a “duty-free” location he operates at the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest border crossing in North America.

The decision allows Manny Maroon to strip off the federal fuel tax from the diesel he sells, enabling him to offer fuel for about the same price as his competitors pay for it from their wholesaler.

The National Association of Truck Stop Operators says the tactic is unfair. The group is lobbying Congress to prevent fuel from being sold at duty-free locations; it is believed Maroon has bought property at the Blue Water Bridge, connecting Port Huron, Mich., and Sarnia, Ont., and at the Peace River Bridge, at Niagara Falls, N.Y., ostensibly to operate duty-free fuel stops there.

Historically, the United States Customs Agency has prevented the sale of fuel at duty-free facilities, but in August the United States Court of International Trade ruled that the federal agency lacked the power to prohibit these sales.

U.S. Customs attorneys argued they did have the authority because dutiable items by law must fit the following four categories:

* The goods sold in duty-free stores must constitute “individual items of merchandise.”
* The goods actually sold in duty-free stores must consist of pre-designated “saleable units.”
* The goods sold in duty-free stores must be capable of being marked.
* If a pattern of re-importation exists with respect to particular goods, there must be a means of detecting such a pattern.

Because gasoline and diesel fuel possess none of these features, Customs prohibited their sale from duty-free stores.

The judge disagreed, stating that “had Congress intended Customs to restrict the sale of gasoline, diesel fuel, or other such fungible merchandise through duty-free stores, it could have included language to this effect in the statute. That Congress failed to identify such an intention in either language or legislative history persuades this court that the statute contains no such restriction.”

Source: Truckinginfo.com