Importer Says CBP Liquidated Its Entries Despite Ongoing Litigation

CBP illegally liquidated an importer’s entries before litigation over the entries’ antidumping duty rate had finished, that importer alleged in the Court of International Trade (Acquisition 362 dba Strategic Import Supply vs. U.S., CIT 24-00011).

Acquisition 362, a vehicle parts importer, brought its Jan. 18 complaint after CBP liquidated several of its entries at a 64.57% antidumping duty rate rather than its prior 8.72% rate.

That higher rate had been established after the Commerce Department finished its 2016-17 administrative review on Chinese car and truck tires in 2019. Acquisition’s exporters, Hengyu and Boto, previously had been entering goods into the U.S. under an 8.72% AD rate, the importer said.Commerce didn't individually examine the two companies in the 2016-17 review, instead assigning them the same 64.57% rate assigned to the review’s mandatory respondent and all of the other non-individually examined respondents, it said.

In 2019, several other separate rate exporters took to CIT to protest its denials of their own separate rates, Acquisition said. The court issued a statutory injunction on certain entries subject to the administrative review, including some entries exported by Hengyu and Boto. Commerce then issued instructions to CBP that “put CBP on notice” that the AD rate for Hengyu and Boto’s entries were being litigated, it said. It said that case is still before the court.

However, CBP later liquidated Acquisition’s entries anyway, the importer said. Acquisition didn't say what date that liquidation occurred, but it noted Commerce denied its timely filed administrative protest on July 25, 2023.

It asked CIT to order reliquidation of its entries at the 8.72% rate and to refund all excess duties paid on the same merchandise at the higher rate of duty plus interest.

“Despite the ongoing nature of the litigation that produced the SI, despite the remand redetermination required by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals for the Administrative Review rate issued for tires manufactured by Hengyu and Boto, and despite the lack of finalization regarding the AD rate assessable to tires manufactured by Hengyu and Boto and entered during the period of review at issue (as were the Tires at issue herein), CBP liquidated the Entries for the Tires manufactured by Hengyu and Boto and entered and imported by Plaintiff during the period of review at issue,” it said.