NEWS RELEASES
Tariff Issues Haunt Insolvent Erwin Hymer NA
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through The Record's website.
CAMBRIDGE, Ontario — The Record, a Canadian news outlet, reports that a court case involving nearly a half-million dollars owed to Erwin Hymer North America lives on despite that company’s receivership, in a case that has implications for other RV companies based in Canada. The controversy dates to 2014, when Erwin Hymer (then Roadtrek) had to pay the 2.5 percent tariff on 149 Class B camper vans delivered to the U.S. The tariff applies to all Class B motorhomes sent south of the border. Erwin Hymer Group NA protested the tariff, arguing that the vehicle bodies were originally built in the U.S. and should be able to return tariff-free under a provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement known as "American Goods Returned" after being modified in Canada, according to John Peterson of New York law firm Neville Peterson LLP who is handling the case.
Peterson has filed tariff protests covering virtually every Roadtrek sent to the U.S. from Canada over the past five years, with the potential for millions of dollars to be recovered. This month judges on the federal circuit of the United States Court of Appeals ruled against Erwin Hymer NA, but Peterson says he hopes to take the case to the full appellate court with the approval of the receiver. Erwin Hymer NA owed some $259 million to hundreds of unsecured creditors when it declared bankruptcy and little of that debt can be repaid with proceeds from Roadtrek’s sale. Last year, a U.S. federal court of appeals ruled against Pleasure-Way, a Saskatoon-based Class B camper van manufacturer, which sought an exemption from U.S. tariff in a similar case, stating that the campers were "commercially different" from the cargo vans built in the U.S. Peterson’s case has the potential to clarify the procedure of sending modified U.S. made vehicles back over the border for all Canadian manufacturers of RVs.
Read more details of this case on The Record website.