CIT Rules Certain Entries are Deemed Liquidated
In U.S. Tsubaki, Inc. v. U.S., the Court of International Trade granted summary judgment to Customs for shipments of roller chain from Japan imported by Tsubaki, ruling that they were all subject to the liquidation procedures as provided for in the 1984 version of 19 USC 1504(d), and with an exception of five entries, they were not eligible to be deemed liquidated by operation of law.
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Tsubaki made entry for fifty-six shipments of roller chain from Japan imported from 1979 to 1983. The entries were suspended by the Department of Commerce pending two antidumping duty administrative reviews. The first review covered the period of December 1, 1979 through March 31, 1981, and the second was from April 1, 1981 to September 1, 1983. Commerce published the final results of their reviews of the first period on December 4, 1986 and of the second period on May 8, 1987.
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 as required by statute or court order. "When such a suspension of liquidation is removed, the entry shall be liquidated within 90 days" The Court 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 to 19 USC 1504(d) was enacted, which removed both the four year and ninety-day time limit. The change obligated Customs to liquidate within 6 months after a suspension was removed.
The CIT stated that a procedural rule can not apply retroactively, if it imposes an additional obligation upon a party. Under the 1984 version of 19 USC 1504(d), Customs had an unlimited amount of time to liquidate the entries, when the removal of a suspension occurred more then four years after entry. In this case, the 1993 amendment to 19 USC 1504(d) would have required Customs to liquidate the entries within 6 months, regardless of when the suspension was removed.
The CIT ruled that the 1984 version of U.S.C. 1504(d) applied to all the entries, and deemed liquidation was therefore not available, with the exception of five entries which were suspended less than four years. Those five entries were not covered by the exception of the four-year time limit, thus they should have been liquidated within 90 days (after the suspension of liquidation was removed), Customs was directed to re-liquidate the five entries and refund any excess antidumping duties and interest involved.
CIT Slip Op. 06-148 (dated 10/10/06) available at http://www.cit.uscourts.gov/slip_op/Slip_op06/06-148.pdf