19 U.S.C. § 1516: Petitions by domestic interested parties

a description of the merchandise, the appraised value, the classification, or the rate of duty that it believes proper, and the reasons for its belief. a manufacturer, producer, or wholesaler in the United States; a certified union or recognized union or group of workers which is representative of an industry engaged in the manufacture, production, or wholesale in the United States; or a trade or business association a majority of whose members are manufacturers, producers, or wholesalers in the United States, Any producer of a raw agricultural product who is considered under section 1677(4)(E) of this title to be part of the industry producing a processed agricultural product of the same class or kind as the designated imported merchandise shall, for purposes of this section, be treated as an interested party producing such processed agricultural product. If, after receipt and consideration of a petition filed by such an interested party, the Secretary determines that the appraised value, the classification, or rate of duty is not correct, he shall determine the proper appraised value, classification, or rate of duty and shall notify the petitioner of his determination. All such merchandise entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption more than thirty days after the date such notice to the petitioner is published in the weekly Customs Bulletin shall be appraised, classified, or assessed as to the rate of duty in accordance with the Secretary’s determination. If the Secretary determines that the appraised value, classification, or rate of duty with respect to which a petition was filed pursuant to subsection (a) of this section is correct, he shall notify the petitioner. If dissatisfied with the determination of the Secretary, the petitioner may file with the Secretary, not later than thirty days after the date of the notification, notice that it desires to contest the appraised value, classification, or rate of duty. Upon receipt of notice from the petitioner, the Secretary shall cause publication to be made of his determination as to the proper appraised value, classification, or rate of duty and of the petitioner’s desire to contest, and shall thereafter furnish the petitioner with such information as to the entries and consignees of such merchandise, entered after the publication of the determination of the Secretary, at such ports of entry designated by the petitioner in his notice of desire to contest, as will enable the petitioner to contest the appraised value, classification, or rate of duty imposed upon such merchandise in the liquidation of one such entry at such port. The Secretary shall direct the appropriate customs officer at such ports to immediately notify the petitioner by mail when the first of such entries is liquidated. Notwithstanding the filing of an action pursuant to chapter 169 of title 28, merchandise of the character covered by the published decision of the Secretary (when entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or before the date of publication of a decision of the United States Court of International Trade or of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, not in harmony with the published decision of the Secretary) shall be appraised or classified, or both, and the entries liquidated, in accordance with the decision of the Secretary and, except as otherwise provided in this chapter, the final liquidations of these entries shall be conclusive upon all parties. The consignee or his agent shall have the right to appear and to be heard as a party in interest before the United States Court of International Trade. If the cause of action is sustained in whole or in part by a decision of the United States Court of International Trade or of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, merchandise of the character covered by the published decision of the Secretary, which is entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption after the date of publication in the Federal Register by the Secretary or the administering authority of a notice of the court decision, shall be subject to appraisement, classification, and assessment of duty in accordance with the final judicial decision in the action, and the liquidation of entries covering the merchandise so entered or withdrawn shall be suspended until final disposition is made of the action, whereupon the entries shall be liquidated, or if necessary, reliquidated in accordance with the final decision. Such notice of the court decision shall be published within ten days from the date of the issuance of the court decision. Regulations shall be prescribed by the Secretary to implement the procedures required under this section. The provisions of subsection (b) of section 516 of the Tariff Act of 1930 [this section], as amended by this act, shall apply only in the case of complaints filed after the effective date of this act [see Effective Date of 1938 Amendment note set out under section 1401 of this title ]. The provisions of subsection (b) of section 516 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as in force prior to the effective date of this act, shall continue in force with respect to any proceedings commenced by the filing of a complaint thereunder, except that upon the expiration of thirty days after the effective date of this act, or upon the expiration of thirty days after the date of a decision of the Secretary adverse to the complainant, whichever is the later, any such proceedings in which a protest has not been duly filed shall be deemed to have been terminated unless the complainant shall have filed with the Secretary after the effective date of this act a notice that he desires to protest the classification of, or rate of duty assessed upon, the merchandise. ”