A federal court in El Paso, Texas, dismissed a lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. on Dec. 17 after the U.S. government decided to drop its claims against the automaker in a NAFTA record-keeping case.

On Sept. 26, the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas had denied Ford's motion to dismiss the lawsuit seeking to collect a $42 million fine levied by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Since then Customs agreed to drop all claims against Ford, David G. Leitch, senior vice president and general counsel at Ford, said in an e-mail statement.

“The Government advised Ford that it had reevaluated its policy regarding NAFTA certificates of origin and as part of that reevaluation decided not to pursue the case against Ford,” Leitch said. “Needless to say, Ford is pleased with the outcome in this case.”

In “Ford Loses NAFTA Record-keeping Case,” InsideCounsel reported in its December 2007 issue that Customs demanded that Ford produce supporting records for a NAFTA Certificate of Origin–which when attached to an invoice guarantees duty-free access across the NAFTA zone–for thousands of automotive products Ford imported from a Mexican subsidiary in 1996. Ford claimed it had no obligation to maintain the records because they were produced by the Mexican company.