Ben Perkins

The government cannot collect 20-year-old customs bonds when it took no action to collect them for over a decade, ruled the Court of International Trade in an opinion made public on Aug. 22. Judge Richard Eaton found the six-year statute of limitations on the bonds "began to run at liquidation when all of the events necessary to bring suit for the duties owed had occurred," not when CBP demanded payment. Even if the court agreed that CBP's claim that its action for breach of contract accrued thirty days after AHAC failed to pay, the claims would still be time-barred, said Eaton. Issuing a demand for payment was an act solely within the control of CBP. "Like any prudent litigant, CBP ... must act reasonably in pursuing its claims under a bond," he said.

The Commerce Department unlawfully broke with past practice by relying on raw honey acquisition costs as a proxy to calculate costs of production in the antidumping duty investigation on raw honey from India, a lawyer for the American Honey Producers Association and the Sioux Honey Association argued during oral arguments at the Court of International Trade on Aug. 16 (American Honey Producers Association v. U.S., CIT # 22-00195).

The Court of International Trade denied a government motion for judgment and ruled in favor of the defendant, American Home Assurance Company (AHAC), in a case centered on when the six-year statute of limitations begins for customs bonds, according to an Aug. 18 judgment. Though the opinion is still confidential, the judgment shows that CIT Judge Richard Eaton denied the government's motion for summary judgment and granted AHAC's motion, thereby ending the action. All claims asserted were dismissed with prejudice and Eaton ordered that each party would bear its own costs and expenses (U.S. v. American Home Assurance Co., CIT # 20-00175).

The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Aug. 18 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):

The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:

The Court of International Trade upheld July remand results from the Commerce Department that saw the weighted-average dumping margin for antidumping duty respondent Suzano drop from 32.31% to 8.63%. The remand was the second in a case challenging the third administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain uncoated paper from Brazil (Suzano S.A. v. U.S., CIT # 21-00069).

CBP improperly disallowed valuation using the first sale rule of imported woodworking tools, importer Woodcraft Supply said in an Aug. 16 complaint at the Court of International Trade. The woodworking specialty retailer argued that purchases from its Taiwanese vendors were made "at arms length" and that the court should order the reliquidation of its imported merchandise appraised using first sale value (Woodcraft Supply v. U.S., CIT # 22-00252).

Canvas banner matisse imported by Berger Textiles is subject to the antidumping duty order on certain artist canvas from China, the Commerce Department said in a recently released scope ruling.

The Court of International Trade in an Aug. 17 opinion appeared to leave the door open for the government to collect additional duties in court cases filed by importers challenging denied protests. In the latest in a series of recently issued decisions finding the government can't file counterclaims in denied protest cases, Judge Gary Katzmann reclassified a government counterclaim as a defense, but said importer Second Nature Designs may be liable for more duties if that defense prevails.

The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Aug. 18 on AD/CVD proceedings: