Port Lacked Authority to Reliquidate Entries Without Demand for Records, CBP Rules

December 5, 2022 by Ben Perkins|Customs Rulings

The Port of Hidalgo, Texas, lacked the authority to reliquidate entries of mangoes from Mexico, CBP headquarters said in a Sept. 30 ruling, made public on Nov. 29. The ruling was in response to a protest filed on behalf of importer RB Logistics, which imported the mangoes in 2013, claiming preferential treatment under NAFTA. The port liquidated the entries, without change, in January 2014 but then reliquidated the entries with an increase in duties owed in February 2017.

RB Logistics filed a protest and a request for further review, claiming that the Port’s decision to reliquidate the entries was improper. In September 2017, the Port denied the protest but granted the request for further review, claiming that the reliquidation of the entries was timely. RB Logistics argued that the entries should have been deemed liquidated in September 2014, upon expiration of the 180-day liquidation deadline and that CBP therefore unlawfully reliquidated the entries three years later.

In its analysis, CBP noted that liquidation of entries becomes final unless one of two events occurs within the prescribed time: a protest is timely filed, or a suit is filed contesting the denial of the protest. Neither happened within the deadline of the original entries. Therefore, the January and February 2014 liquidations became final after the 180 days for filing a protest elapsed in August 2014.

The Port of Hidalgo argued that reliquidation was timely under 19 C.F.R. 163.6(b)(2)(B), which allows the port to demand entry records and to then reliquidate entries if the original liquidation was within the two-year period preceding the date of the demand. However, CBP HQ noted that there was no evidence, provided either by the port or in CBP’s ACE system, to indicate that any demand was made. Absent such demands, the port lacked the authority to reliquidate and, therefore, the February 2017 reliquidation was contrary to law and RB Logistics' protest should be granted.