Time of Entry Set When ACE Accepts Initial Entry Summary, Shipment Arrives, CBP Says

Changes to an entry date due to CBP modifications of an entry summary don't affect the time of entry for the purposes of assessing Section 301 tariffs, CBP said in a ruling released by the agency Nov. 28.

Although CBP twice changed the entry summary date for a shipment imported by Structured Cable Products, pushing the date back by a month and then assessing Section 301 tariffs that took effect in the meantime, the “most important consideration” for time of entry is that ACE indicates an entry summary was filed and accepted before the tariffs took effect, CBP said.

The issue came before CBP headquarters via an application for further review filed by Structured Cable on its denied protest.

Structured Cable had imported goods subject to List 2 Section 301 duties around the time the 25% duties took effect on Aug. 23, 2018. The importer filed an initial entry summary, which was filed and accepted in ACE on July 25, 2018. CBP then modified the entry summary twice, on Aug. 7 and on Aug. 25, 2018, each time putting the date the entry summary was modified as the entry date.

CBP then assessed List 2 Section 301 tariffs on the shipment because it said the entry date was now Aug. 25, two days after the tariffs took effect, prompting Structured Cable’s initial protest.

According to CBP headquarters, which issued the ruling, 19 CFR 141.68(b) provides that, when the entry summary serves as both the entry and the entry summary, the time of entry is the “time the entry summary is filed in proper form with estimated duties attached.” 19 CFR 141.68 also allows the importer to select the date of entry, but that date can’t come before “the merchandise has arrived within the port limits with the intent to unlade.”

ACE, “CBP’s internal system of record, indicates that an entry summary was filed and accepted on July 25, 2018,” the ruling said. “It is of no consequence that ACE also lists two subsequent entry dates of August 7, 2018, and August 25, 2018, because there was an earlier entry summary filing in proper form,” the agency said.

ACE cargo release also showed the arrival date of the merchandise at the port was July 27, 2018, the ruling said, making that the earliest date of entry. “Accordingly, the proper entry date” for the shipment “is July 27, 2018, the date on which the merchandise arrived within port limits with the intent to unlade as established by ACE and the supporting documentation.”

“This entry date predates the August 23, 2018, effective date of the Section 301 duties,” the ruling said. The entry “should therefore be reliquidated without the assessment of Section 301 duties,” and the protest is granted, it said.