CIT Rules Certain Entries Were Not Eligible to be Deemed Liquidated
In Shima American Corp. v. U.S., the Court of International Trade granted summary judgment to Customs on shipments of roller chain from Japan imported by Shima, ruling the entries were subject to the liquidation procedures as provided for in 19 USC 1504(d), and they were not eligible to be deemed liquidated by operation of law.
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Shima made entry for shipments of roller chain from Japan imported between April 1, 1986 and March 31, 1987. The entries were suspended by the Department of Commerce pending an antidumping duty administrative review. Commerce published the final results of the review on April 13, 1992, but did not issue liquidation instructions until November 30, 2000. Customs then liquidated the entries and assessed antidumping duties on December 29, 2000.
From 1984 until 1993, 19 USC 1504(d) stated that entries not liquidated at the expiration of four years would be deemed liquidated at the rate of duty asserted by the importer at the time of entry, unless liquidation continued to be suspended after four years. The statute also stated that "When such a suspension of liquidation is removed, the entry shall be liquidated within 90-days thereof." However, the Court has interpreted this 90-day requirement to be discretionary, if the removal of the suspension occurred after the four year time-limit.
On December 8, 1993, an amendment was enacted to 19 USC 1504, which removed both the four year and the ninety-day time limit. The change stated that "When a suspension required by statute or court order is removed, the Customs Service shall liquidate the entry within 6 months after receiving notice of the removal from the Department of Commerce " Further, any entry not liquidated by Customs within the 6 month period shall be treated as having been deemed liquidated at the amount of duty asserted at the time of entry by the importer.
The CIT stated that Commerce had published the revised final results of their review on April 13, 1992 and notified Customs of the removal of the suspension on that date. The Court noted the requirement to liquidate within the six-month period after the suspension was removed would have required the liquidation to have occurred before the effective date of the amendment (December 8, 1993). Thus, it ruled that the 1993 amendment to 19 USC 1504(d) would not apply.
The CIT ruled that the 1984 version of USC 1504(d) did apply. As such, deemed liquidation is not available to the entries because the removal of the suspension occurred more than four years after entry.
CIT Slip Op. 06-153 (dated 10/17/06) available at: http://www.cit.uscourts.gov/slip_op/Slip_op06/06-153.pdf