Canadian Lumber Exporter Says Its Entries Mistakenly Categorized as Liquidated
Canadian exporter Inferfor brought a June 11 complaint to the Court of International Trade arguing CBP had wrongly ended the suspension of liquidation on its entries during antidumping duty and countervailing duty reviews on softwood lumber from Canada (Interfor Sales & Marketing v. United States, CIT # 25-00105).
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Inferfor said administrative reviews had been requested with regard to it, and the Commerce Department subsequently examined it and suspended the entries of its affiliated reseller, ISM. The reviews’ results have been appealed to a binational panel under USMCA, so Commerce instructed CBP to continue to the suspension, it said.
Despite this, “CBP claims that the Subject Entries were ‘liquidated,’” the exporter said -- even though the agency “never posted the purported liquidations on the CBP Online Liquidation Bulletin.”
Interfor said it learned of the apparent liquidations on Oct. 7, 2024, through CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment. It asked for clarification, but was told that the entries had been liquidated and that the agency “ha[d] no further actions available at this time,” it said.
“There is a history of malfunctions and errors with CBP’s use of automation, programming, and technical data as frequently reported through Cargo System Messaging System (‘CSMS’) notices,” it noted.