US Waited Too Long to Bring Claim for Unpaid Duties, Importer Argues
The U.S. waited too long before seeking to collect on nearly $90,000 of unpaid antidumping duties for two entries in 2017 and 2018, plus $90,000 more in penalty fees, inkjet fabric rolls importer Courtside Market said June 20 at the Court of International Trade (U.S. v. Courtside Market, CIT # 24-00233).
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The importer described itself as “a small family-owned business” and an “inexperienced importer” that began purchasing inputs from China in 2015. It said it retained a customs broker, B&H Customs, which knew that Courtside’s purchases might be subject to antidumping duties but didn’t raise any alarms. As a result, the importer’s entries were categorized incorrectly as not subject to duties.
"Had Courtside Market been so apprised the importations would have ceased immediately," the importer said.
Courtside said it received a penalty notice in 2020 and, though it couldn’t afford to pay the duties and penalties the U.S. was seeking, voluntarily waived the statute of limitations in 19 U.S.C. 1621 “and any other applicable statute(s)” for two years. It did so again in 2022, it said. But that meant that the second, final waiver expired in March 2024, it claimed, so the U.S. was time-barred against bringing its action to CIT under U.S.C. 1621.
The government was bringing its claim under 19 U.S.C. § 1592 instead, arguing that the importer had been negligent, Courtside said. But that law has a five-year statute of limitations, and more than five years have passed since the second entry in dispute, it said.
Courtside's motion comes days after CIT held that the government's claim for unpaid duties against a surety company on an entry liquidated in 2009 violates both the statute of limitations for seeking payment and an implied requirement in the bond that demand for payment be made in a reasonable time (see 2506110038).