CIT Finds 6-Month Post-Injunction Liquidation Timeline Runs From Notice, Not Effective Date

CBP did not liquidate imports of wooden bedroom furniture from China past a key six-month time limit, the U.S. Court of International Trade found in an April 9 opinion. Ruling in favor of the U.S. government, Chief Judge Mark Barnett found that CBP properly liquidated the furniture entries within six months of being notified by a message from Commerce that an injunction against the entries' liquidation was lifted. Barnett also found that the agency's reliquidation of another entry from importer Aspects Furniture International, following the entry's deemed liquidation without a notice to the importer, did not violate the pre-2016 version of the reliquidation statute.

The entries at issue in the case were the subject of a separate case challenging an antidumping duty administrative review on wooden bedroom furniture from China covering entries from 2014. During the proceedings, an injunction was put in place to stop liquidation for all unliquidated entries at issue in the case. The injunction was officially lifted on May 12, 2017, and the Commerce Department notified CBP of the lifting of suspension of liquidation by way of a message on May 30, 2017. CBP liquidated the entries on Nov. 24, 2017

AFI, along with fellow importer IMSS, claimed that the six-month time limit to liquidate the entries before deemed liquidation occurs began ticking on May 12, and had expired by Nov. 24; the government claimed the period ran from the date of message, May 30, and that liquidation was on time. According to AFI, while Commerce's message to CBP was posted May 30, the message itself said that injunction was lifted on May 12, making that date the effective date of the lifting of suspension of liquidation.

Barnett found that the law dictates that the deadline for liquidation begins once a notice of the lifted injunction is given to CBP, not when the decision itself is made. “The statute is clear ... that the liquidation period begins on the date CBP 'receiv[es] notice of the removal' of the suspension of liquidation, not on the date on which suspension was lifted, to the extent those dates differ,” Barnett wrote. Even though the notice from Commerce to CBP recognized May 12 as the effective date of the injunction being lifted, the notice itself still marks the starting point of the six-month window for liquidation.

AFI also challenged CBP's reliquidation of another one of its entries that was reliquidated on Dec. 1, 2017 -- a day after the deadline for liquidation. Since the deadline passed, the entry was deemed liquidated under a rate set by the importer. According to the law, CBP has 90 days to reliquidate this entry and can do so without notifying the importer that its entry originally received the “deemed liquidation” rate. AFI and IMSS argued that this process essentially gives CBP an extra 90 days to liquidate entries following the suspension of an injunction. "That is not a cognizable injury; rather, that is precisely the amount of time that sections 1501 and 1504(d), together, afford Customs to correctly assess the duties owed on an entry that first liquidates by operation of law," Barnett said.