On March 31, the Department of Commerce published a Federal Register Notice seeking comments from the public on the Department’s system of assessing antidumping and countervailing duties on imported merchandise.

Historically, Commerce has assessed antidumping and countervailing duties retrospectively. Under this system, an importer would deposit antidumping duties at the time of entry, but the duties assessed would not be finalized until after the Department reviewed the extent of dumping or subsidization for that period.

While this system may lead to more “accurate” duty margins, it causes great uncertainty among importers. Entries can remain unliquidated for years, and changes in duty rates can result in additional duties plus interest assessed on years-old inventory.