CAFC Schedules Argument for Suit on Deemed Liquidation of Drawback Claims
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Nov. 20 scheduled a case concerning deemed liquidation of duty drawback claims for oral argument on Jan. 8 (Performance Additives v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-2059).
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In the case, the Court of International Trade last year held that a duty drawback claim becomes deemed liquidated after one year if the underlying import entries are also liquidated and final, with finality defined as the end of the 180-day window in which to file a protest with CBP (see 2405310073). Due to the ruling, the trade court said one of importer Performance Additives' drawback claims was deemed liquidated but another of its claims wasn't, since its entries weren't liquidated and final within one year of the claim being made.
Performance Additives appealed, arguing that CIT imposed conditions on the deemed liquidation rule of 19 U.S.C. Section 1504(a)(2)(A) that don't exist in the statute and imposed the rules of Section 1504(a)(2)(B) despite this law not applying to the company's entries at issue (see 2409100055).
At issue are two statutory provisions -- Section 1504(a)(2)(A) and (a)(2)(B). The first says that unless a drawback claim is suspended or extended, it will be deemed liquidated at the claimed amount if it's not liquidated within one year from the date of entry or filed claim. The second concerns drawback claims on unliquidated imports and says that drawback claims whose import entries haven't been liquidated and become final within the one-year period described in (a)(2)(A) shall be deemed liquidated upon the deposit of estimated duties on the unliquidated imports and filing with CBP of a written request for liquidation of the drawback claim.