HQ 224582 - Protest #0101-93-100014 concerning the assessment of interest on antidumping duties (ADD); 19 U.S.C. 1677g; 19 U.S.C. 1504. - United States International Trade Commision Rulings

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HQ 224582

May 27, 1994

LIQ-4-01 CO:R:C:E 224582 TLS

CATEGORY: ENTRY

District Director
U.S. Customs Service
P.O. Box 4688
Portland, Maine 04112

RE: Protest #0101-93-100014 concerning the assessment of interest on antidumping duties (ADD); 19 U.S.C. 1677g; 19 U.S.C. 1504.

Dear Sir:

This office has received the request for further review of the above-referenced protest as provided for under Customs regulations. We have considered the request and made the following decision.

FACTS:

A series of entries were made by the protestant between February 4, 1977 and April 13, 1981. The International Trade Administration (ITA) of the Dept. of Commerce published results of its administrative review for the time period covering the subject entries on May 11 and 24, 1982. Pursuant to those notices, Customs was issued instructions on July 20, 1982 (CIE No. N-350/71 Supp. 13) and December 19, 1983 (CIE No. N-350/71 Supp. 16) to lift the suspensions and liquidate the entries. The entries were actually liquidated on November 13, 1992. The protestant argues that the entries should have been deemed liquidated 90 days after the suspensions were lifted. Customs has since conceded that most of the entries made on or after April 1, 1979 were in fact deemed liquidated by operation of law and the 11-13-92 liquidations were done in error. For the entries made before 4-1-79, Customs does not believe those are deemed liquidated by operation of law, although the protestant argues such.

The protestant also argues that interest payments should not apply to any of the entries regardless of date because no cash payments were made on any of them. Customs agrees with this assessment as well. Thus, what remains at dispute are the entries made before 4-1-79 and whether they should be deemed liquidated by operation of law.

This protest was timely filed on February 9, 1993, 88 days after Customs liquidated these entries.

ISSUE:

Whether the subject entries made before April 1, 1979 should be deemed liquidated by operation of law pursuant to P.L. 95-410, codified as 19 U.S.C. 1504.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

The relevant parts of 19 U.S.C. 1504 read as follows:

(d) Limitation.--Any entry of merchandise not liquidated at the expiration of four years from the applicable date specified in subsection (a) of this section, shall be deemed liquidated at the rate of duty, value, quantity, and amount of duty asserted at the time of entry by the importer, his consignee, or agent, unless liquidation continues to be suspended as required by statute or court order. When such a suspension of liquidation is removed, the entry shall be liquidated within 90 days therefrom.

Section 209(b) of Pub. L. 95-410 provides that the statute applies to the entry or withdrawal of merchandise for consumption on or after 180 days after the enactment of the statute. The statute was enacted on October 3, 1978; April 1, 1979 is the 180th day after that. There is no dispute that the entries made after the April 1 date are subject to the statute's provisions. Thus, the only question to be answered here is whether the entries made before April 1 are subject to the statute's provisions.

The effective date of the statute, as noted before, is 180 days after the enactment date of October 3, 1978, or April 1, 1979. It is beyond obvious to recognize that the statute could not possibly have effect on entries made before the statute even became effective! We simply do not find any merit in this argument. We must presume that Congress purposely chose the enactment date it did for definite reasons; we are not in a position to question such. Therefore, we are compelled to find that Customs acted within its authority under law at the time with respect to the subject entries made before April 1, 1979. They are not deemed liquidated pursuant to 19 U.S.C. 1504.

It should also be noted that the importer's list of entries it believes are subject to this ruling includes entries made after April 1, 1979, but not included among the entries listed under Supp. 16 that Customs was instructed to lift suspensions on and liquidate. Those entries are subject to Supp. 13 and should be deemed liquidated accordingly. In addition, Supp. 16 lists three entries made after April 1, 1979 that were to be liquidated pursuant to the instruction but are not among the entries listed by the importer. Those entries are not subject to this ruling as they have not been protested. In any case, only those entries made after April 1, 1979 that are listed in Supp. 16 and have been protested here (entries XXX718 (August 14, 1980), XXX052 (January 2, 1981), XXX317 (March 11, 1981), and XXX647 (April 13, 1981)) or those subject to Supp. 13 (entries XXX742 (March 3, 1980), XXX953 (March 10, 1980), and XXX458 (August 6, 1980)) are subject to this ruling.

HOLDING:

Interest on anti-dumping duties should not be charged when cash deposits were not required, as is the case here.

The entries subject to this protest that were made after the April 1, 1979 (the effective date of 19 U.S.C. 1504) that are listed in CIE No. N-350/71 Supp. 16 (December 19, 1983) and the three entries noted above that are subject to CIE N-350-71 Supp. 13 (July 20, 1982) are deemed liquidated by law.

The entries made before April 1, 1979 are not deemed liquidated by operation of law because they were made prior to the effective date of 19 U.S.C. 1504. This protest should be ALLOWED with respect to the entries noted above and DENIED with respect to the entries made before 4-1-79.

In accordance with Section 3A(11)(b) of Customs Directive 099 3550-065, dated August 4, 1993, Subject: Revised Protest Directive, this decision should be mailed by your office to the protestant no later than 60 days from the date of this letter. Any reliquidation of the entry in accordance with the decision must be accomplished prior to mailing of the decision. Sixty days from the date of the decision the Office of Regulations and Rulings will take steps to make the decision available to customs personnel via the Customs Rulings Module in ACS and the public via the Diskette Subscription Service, Lexis, Freedom of Information Act and other public access channels.

Sincerely,

John Durant, Director

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