Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Docket: 14-1292
|
Opinion Date:
June 17, 2015
|
Areas of Law: Civil Procedure, International Trade
|
|
Following a 1996 investigation, the Department of Commerce
declared that freshwater crawfish tail meat imported from China was subject to
antidumping duties. In 2001, JCOF imported that product from Yangzhou, which
qualified as a “new exporter” under 19 U.S.C. 1675(a)(2)(B). JCOF obtained,
from AHAC , a one-year, continuous $600,000 bond, 19 U.S.C. 1675(a)(2)(B)(iii),
made two entries from Yangzhou, and declared a 0% duty rate, the deposit rate
then in effect for shipments by Yangzhou. Commerce conducted administrative
review of 2001-2002 entries; the final results assigned Yangzhou a 223.01%
rate. Customs liquidated the entries and billed JCOF, which failed to pay.
Customs sought payment from AHAC, which filed protest. Another exporter
challenged Commerce’s 2004 administrative review. Following dissolution of a
resultant injunction, which had not applied to Yangzhou, Customs nonetheless
reliquidated JCOF’s entries, issued new bills, and denied AHAC’s protest. AHAC
did not appeal, but filed another protest, which was denied. Customs demanded
$1,157,898.22. AHAC asserted that the collection action was moot because the
erroneous reliquidations voided the previous liquidations, so that no valid
liquidation occurred and the entries should be deemed liquidated under 19
U.S.C. 1504(d) at the initially-declared 0% rate. The Court of International
Trade and Federal Circuit held that AHAC was obligated to pay. The
reliquidations voided the original liquidations, but AHAC failed to preserve
its rights by timely litigation; the reliquidations became final, “whether
legal or not.” The court remanded the issues of equitable and statutory
prejudgment interest.
