CBP Rules Six-Month Requirement for Liquidation Begins Day After Trigger Event

CBP correctly liquidated an entry within the required six-month timeframe that starts on the day after the "triggering event," CBP said in a further review of protest on Sept. 12 (here). The protest, filed by Coaster Corporation of America, was in response to CBP's liquidation of an entry of wooden bedroom furniture from China that the company said was too late. The newly released ruling, HQ H173819, is one of several recent rulings on CBP's interpretation of "deemed liquidation." One such ruling is the subject of a court challenge (see 1410200053).

Coaster imported the furniture in 2008 and paid a 7.24 percent antidumping duty cash deposit (although CBP says the relevant exporter's AD rate was actually only 6.65%). Liquidation was suspended until Commerce completed its administrative review of the relevant period and calculated final assessments on importers. In 2010, Commerce issued the final results of its review covering entries in 2008. The agency assigned the Chinese exporter of Coaster's entry the 216.01% China-wide rate, causing Coaster's antidumping duty liability on the entry to skyrocket.

CBP liquidated Coaster's entry at the higher rate on Feb. 18, 2011, but the company said that the liquidation is required to have occurred by Feb. 17, 2011 or it would be "deemed liquidated." An entry is deemed liquidated if CBP doesn't act on an entry "within" six months after receiving notice that a liquidation suspension is lifted.

The notice to CBP lifting a suspension of liquidation occurs upon publication of final results in the Federal Register, in this case on Aug. 18, 2010, said CBP. CBP has "consistently calculated statutory deadlines starting the day after the triggering event and including the entirety of the deadline day," it said. That "interpretation permits the party subject to a statutory time limit to avail itself of the entire time limit set forth in the statute," the agency said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Court of International Trade have used the same interpretation for the word "within," said CBP. "The two courts have nearly identical rules with respect to the computation of time" and those "rules apply to any statute that does not expressly specify a method of computing time, as is the case" in the statute on deemed liquidation, the agency said. "Because the triggering event occurred on August 18, 2010, the six-month clock for liquidation began to run on August 19, 2010," said CBP. While Coaster argued that in using "the plain meaning of the word 'within,' that CBP must have liquidated the entry inside of or before the end of the six month mark of February 18, 2011," the agency disagreed. "Coaster Corp has not properly calculated this deadline," said CBP.