Mexico Strawberry Antidumping Scope Turns on Entry Date
Commerce removed the harvest trigger from the preliminary scope. The first possible covered entry is November 1, so importers need one file for entry date and rate path.
Primary lensTrade remedies
Sub-topicAD/CVD orders
Evidence base6 records used
Use caseTrade-remedy exposure
Commerce's preliminary antidumping measure on Mexican strawberries follows the U.S. entry calendar. It no longer follows the harvest date.
The distinction comes from a change published on August 21. Commerce deleted the words `harvested or` from the investigation's first scope paragraph. The current text covers fresh and chilled strawberries from Mexico entered from November 1 through March 31. For an ordinary consumption entry, the practical seasonal field is now the entry date.
August 18 was the announcement. August 21 was Federal Register publication and the date the preliminary measure became applicable. Yet an August 21 publication does not place every Mexican strawberry entry under cash deposit. Entries from August 21 through October 31 do not meet the current scope's seasonal condition. The first future date on which the notice and that condition can meet is November 1, 2026.
From November 1 through March 31, timing alone is not enough. The importer still has to match the written product description, Mexican origin, and producer-exporter record to the live collection instruction. The preliminary rates are 5.28 percent for Driscoll's Operaciones S.A. de C.V., 3.37 percent for Mainland Farms S.A. de C.V., and 4.83 percent for all others. These are cash-deposit rates, not final assessed duties.
The working document should be one A-201-869 entry-date scope file. It supports a single decision before filing each ordinary consumption entry. Does this entry meet the current preliminary scope and deposit conditions? Commerce can still change the scope at the final determination. Warehouse withdrawals also appear separately in the suspension language and require the operative CBP instruction rather than an assumption drawn from an ordinary consumption entry.
Two clocks meet on November 1
The notice contains an applicability clock and the scope contains a seasonal clock. Both must be satisfied.
Entry date here means the applicable CBP time of entry under 19 CFR 141.68, not a raw broker transmission timestamp.
Ordinary consumption entry date
Current preliminary treatment
Entry-file consequence
Before August 21, 2026
The preliminary suspension does not reach the entry on the current public record
Preserve the entry date and do not backfill the preliminary rate without a later official instruction
August 21 through October 31, 2026
The notice is applicable, but the entry falls outside the current November-through-March scope window
Preserve the accepted entry date as the reason the seasonal element is not met
November 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027
The temporal element can be met
Complete product, origin, producer-exporter, rate, and instruction checks before filing
April 1 through October 31 after that
The entry falls outside the current recurring seasonal window
Retain the entry proof and monitor any final scope change
The calendar reflects only the preliminary scope published August 21. Warehouse withdrawals, corrected entry dates, and other filing postures remain subject to the operative CBP instruction.
The distinction matters before the first affected winter shipments are booked. A rate table attached to a supplier master will not catch an entry that moves across midnight on October 31. A harvest certificate will not answer the current temporal question. The customs record needs the date used for the consumption entry and the instruction that was in force when the filing was made.
Commerce deleted the harvest trigger
At initiation, the scope covered strawberries from Mexico that were `harvested or entered` during the November 1 through March 31 period. Either event could satisfy the temporal language. The preliminary notice removed the harvest words after parties submitted product-coverage comments.
Commerce did not publish those arguments in the notice. It said the analysis appears in a preliminary scope decision memorandum and reserved a final scope decision for the final determination. The safe conclusion is confined to the text now in force. Only entry remains as the temporal trigger in the published text.
The difference changes outcomes at the edge of the season. For an ordinary consumption entry, a strawberry harvested on October 31 and entered on November 1 can meet the current time condition. One harvested on March 31 and entered on April 1 does not meet it. Product and origin conditions still apply in both examples.
Removing harvest from the scope also changes what evidence carries the decision. Farms and packers may continue to retain harvest information for traceability, food safety, commercial claims, or a later scope change. The importer should not use it as a substitute for the accepted customs entry record.
The Traverse Policy Signal on the August 18 preliminary determination records the preliminary affirmative announcement and cash-deposit posture. The August 21 Federal Register notice adds the operative date, rates, and revised scope language needed for the entry decision.
The written description controls more than the tariff code
The scope reaches all fresh and chilled winter strawberries from Mexico within the entry window. Whole or sliced fruit, bulk or retail packaging, organic production, coatings, and further processing in a third country do not by themselves remove covered merchandise.
Commerce lists current HTSUS statistical numbers 0810.10.4020, 0810.10.4040, 0810.10.4060, and 0810.10.4080. Those numbers help locate entries. They do not decide coverage because the notice makes the written description dispositive.
That leaves the importer with a document problem rather than a code lookup. The file has to connect the commercial item to the written scope and retain Mexican-origin support when processing or routing involves another country. A broker's tariff classification can be correct while the internal AD scope review is incomplete.
The producer-exporter pair also belongs in the same file. Commerce's suspension paragraph assigns a company rate to the named respondents, a named producer's rate when an unlisted exporter ships that producer's merchandise, and the all-others rate to other producers and exporters. The precise filing treatment should follow the live CBP instruction. Supplier name normalization matters because a trade name, packer, producer, exporter, and invoicing entity may not be the same legal person.
USITC's all-strawberry finding does not redraw the entry gate
The U.S. records show different agency questions. Commerce describes the imported merchandise whose U.S. sales it examines and whose entries can face deposits. USITC defines the domestic like product and domestic industry for injury analysis. Those definitions can be broader than Commerce's subject-merchandise scope.
USITC found no clear dividing line between winter and non-winter strawberries based on physical characteristics, uses, production, channels, perceptions, interchangeability, or price. It defined one domestic like product consisting of all fresh strawberries. The proposed regional industry also failed because U.S. producers outside the proposed region supplied a substantial share of demand inside it. USITC therefore analyzed a nationwide industry.
Neither finding ended the case. USITC still found a reasonable indication that the nationwide fresh-strawberry industry was materially injured by reason of the subject imports. Commerce then continued its sales investigation using a seasonal import scope. The March injury report does not create an entry exclusion for fruit imported inside Commerce's November-through-March window.
This division is also why a broad claim about precedent is too early for the entry file. The preliminary record shows that a seasonal import scope can coexist with an all-season domestic like product and a national industry. It does not establish how another produce petition would fare on industry support, product coverage, dumping, injury, or causation.
The entry-date scope file
The file should be assembled before the importer confirms the customs treatment, not after a deposit appears on the entry summary.
Field
Evidence to retain
Decision effect
Consumption entry date
CBP time of entry under 19 CFR 141.68, as reflected in accepted entry data
Tests the current November 1 through March 31 condition
Product and condition
Purchase order, specification, invoice, packing record, and processing description
Tests the written fresh-or-chilled product scope
Country of origin
Origin support and any third-country processing record
Tests Mexican origin without assuming the last processing country controls
Producer and exporter
Legal names, addresses, supplier certifications, invoice parties, and cross-reference to the instruction
Selects the company-specific or all-others path under the operative instruction
HTSUS number
Classification record
Locates the line but does not replace written-scope analysis
CBP instruction version
Instruction identifier, retrieval date, and broker confirmation
Shows which collection rule the filer used
Filing decision
Subject or non-subject result, rate path if subject, reviewer, date, and supporting links
Preserves the filing basis and any later correction review
The file should show its unresolved items. If the producer is not identified, the company-rate analysis is not complete. If the invoice says only fresh strawberries, the product description may be adequate for classification but still fail to show processing and origin facts that matter to scope. If the entry date changes, the temporal result must be rerun.
Keep one importer entry control that cites the Commerce record and records the current treatment. USITC materials explain why a national injury finding does not govern that customs release decision.
Keep the November file provisional
Commerce intends to verify respondent information before the final determination. It can correct a significant ministerial error, change the margins, or revise the final scope. Its fact sheet places the final determination around January 8, 2027, while the notice states the statutory deadline as no later than 135 days after publication. The future official schedule should control rather than a date calculated from either summary.
The preliminary notice also extended the provisional-measures period from four months to no more than six months, measured from the August 21, 2026 publication date, at Driscoll's request. November 1 does not restart that statutory clock. The extension does not convert the cash deposit into a final duty. A final affirmative Commerce determination would still be followed by USITC's final injury determination before an antidumping duty order could issue.
USITC may revisit the domestic like product and industry definitions in the final phase. A different final record could alter the injury analysis without changing how the preliminary Commerce scope governs an entry today.
The importer should reopen the A-201-869 file when Commerce publishes an amended preliminary determination, CBP issues or revises collection instructions, Commerce releases its final scope decision, or the final determinations change the case posture. Until then, November 1 is the first future date that can satisfy both current clocks. The accepted entry date is the evidence that makes that conclusion usable.
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