Importer Challenges Deemed Liquidation of Its Ball Bearings

Ball bearings importer Wermex filed a complaint at the Court of International Trade Oct. 29, contesting CBP's reliquidation of its entries after being erroneously covered by injunctions, when the entries should have been deemed liquidated or been liquidated in line with the final results of the relevant AD review.

During 2009-2010, Wermex imported antifriction bearings from Japan, Italy and France to the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach. At this time, the entries were subject to AD duty orders, with liquidation suspended until the administrative review of this period was completed. In the ensuing years, litigation at CIT over the relevant AD duty orders resulted in the issuance of several injunctions, none of which should have covered the entries from Wermex, it said.

Following the decision in the CIT case over the review, CBP issued liquidation instructions and reliquidated Wermex's entries. But "Wermex’s entries should have been liquidated by CBP in accordance with the final results of the pertinent antidumping reviews issued in June of 2014 (for Japan) and August of 2011 (for Italy and France)," the complaint said.

Liquidation of Wermex's entries should not have been suspended in the first place, the importer said, and the entries should have been liquidated by CBP in step with the final results of the relevant AD reviews. For the reviews that were not liquidated within six months of the final results of the reviews, those entries were wrongly liquidated at the rate "as entered," the complaint said.