Surety Still Owes Unpaid AD Duties Despite 2006 Law Suspending Bond Option, CIT Says

Bonds covering antidumping duties were not retroactively declared invalid by a 2006 law that temporarily suspended the option to post bonds instead of cash deposits for goods subject to new shipper reviews, the Court of International Trade said in a Dec. 14 decision. Hartford Fire Insurance had argued it didn’t owe CBP uncollected duties on entries of fresh garlic from China because the Pension Protection Act, passed in August 2016, retroactively nullified existing bonds going back to April of that year. The trade court disagreed, finding the law’s retroactive application only barred importers from relying on new bonds instead of cash deposits for entries subject to new shipper reviews. Existing bonds issued before the law was enacted remained in effect, it said. “In sum, the PPA does not alter the status of bonds already lawfully filed with Customs, or the ability of Customs to collect against those bonds,” CIT said. The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 has since permanently ended the bond option in new shipper reviews (see 1606070008).

(Hartford Fire Insurance Co. v. U.S., Slip Op. 18-172, CIT # 11-00135, dated 12/14/18, Judge Gordon)