CBP Wrong to Claim Wire Rods Entry Was Liquidated in 2018, Importer Says

CBP incorrectly claims it liquidated an entry of tire cord quality wire rods prior to telling the importer multiple times that the entry was suspended, Kiswire said Jan. 5 at the Court of International Trade (Kiswire Inc. v. U.S., CIT #22-00181).

Kiswire moved for summary judgment in the case, which contests the antidumping duties applied to its products. CBP denied the company’s protest, citing untimeliness.

The relevant AD order sets a 41.1% duty rate on wire rod from South Korea. However, the year after Kiswire’s 2018 imports were entered at a U.S. port, Commerce retroactively revoked the AD order for several entries, Kiswire’s included. After CBP told Kiswire several times that its 2018 entry had been suspended as Commerce proceeded with an AD review, the importer said the entry was finally liquidated in September 2021 without CBP refunding the cash deposit Kiswire had deposited in 2018. The company filed a protest seeking a refund in December of that year, but CBP denied it, saying Kiswire’s entry had actually been liquidated in 2019 and its protest deadline had passed.

Kiswire claimed CBP refused to accept a 2019 post summary correction on the entry because the agency said then that the entry was not yet liquidated, only suspended. The importer also said CBP reassured it four other times afterward that its entry was suspended.

When liquidation is suspended pursuant to an AD proceeding, that suspension remains until it is removed by “an unambiguous and public notice,” Kiswire argued. It said CBP had, to the contrary, been very ambiguous as to the status of its entry.

“Despite multiple requests from Kiswire’s broker, Customs failed to advise how Kiswire should avail itself of the partial revocation with regard to entries that had entered before the end-use certification procedure was established, and Customs continued to show these entries as suspended in its automated system and advised Kiswire’s broker via email that entries remained suspended,” it said.

CBP acted arbitrarily, capriciously and inconsistently, Kiswire said. It said CBP processed several other of Kiswire’s entries of the same product, from the same time period, without the AD.

“Additionally, the denial of Kiswire’s protests as untimely is inconsistent with its treatment of the protested entries at issue as suspended from liquidation,” it said.