X-Men Toys Ruling

I’ve read a number of interesting commentaries (including this one) about the recent U.S. Court of International Trade decision that found the X-Men were “nonhuman creatures,” but I have yet to see a commentary on just how stupid U.S. trade laws are that this was ever even a question.

The reason this case ever came about was because X-Men action figures are made in China and are assessed an import duty. It turns out that dolls have higher duties than things classified as toys. So, Marvel went to court to ensure that the X-Men figures were classified as dolls rather than toys (and any boy over 13 could have settled that by pointing out that they are not dolls, but rather action figures. ‘Nuff said).

Now these duties were actually eliminated a few years ago, and the case was about how much Marvel would have to pay for toys imported in the 1990s. But still — how stupid was it to have some bureaucrat somewhere whose job it is to decide whether some hunk of plastic qualifies as a doll or not?

I couldn’t find a history of the doll tariff online, but the tariff goes back to at least 1937 when it was created pursuant to the 1932 Emergency Imposition of Duties Act.

But there was a dangerous loophole in that order which wasn’t closed until 1952 when, again, under the authority of the Emergency Imposition of Duties Act, a duty was added to imported doll clothes.

Someone surely was fired for allowing foreign firms 20 years to dump there inferior goods in the American marketplace!

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