What U.S. Importers Need To Know Now About the Status of IEEPA Refunds in the Court of International Trade

By Brett W. Johnson, Derek Flint, T. Troy Galan, and Thomas Williams

In the weeks following the U.S. Court of International Trade’s (CIT) March 4, 2026, order directing U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) to liquidate and reliquidate entries without International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs,¹ three significant developments have occurred. First, the CIT narrowed and then suspended its March 4, 2026, order, later amending it to apply to imports that were subject to final liquidation. Second, CBP proposed and began building an automated refund system set to roll out in phases. Third, the CIT denied a motion to expand case management procedures. 

Companies that were the importers of record for the last year should evaluate the status of their import entries and prepare for a potential refund, which will include updated information in the Customs’ system and evaluate flowdown refund issues to customers. Specifically, these legal developments give rise to several actionable steps that all U.S. importers should take to ensure they receive the full quantum of IEEPA tariff refunds once the procedural mechanisms are in place.

I. CIT Order Narrowed, Suspended, and Applied to Final Liquidations

The CIT’s March 4, 2026, order directed CBP to liquidate and reliquidate “any and all” entries subject to IEEPA tariffs.² However, on March 5, 2026, the CIT narrowed the order to apply only to the specific subset of IEEPA tariffs at issue in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Learning Resources, Inc. decision. And on March 6, 2026, the Court further modified the order by suspending it “to the extent that it directs immediate compliance.”³

On March 27, 2026, the CIT amended the earlier order directing CBP to reliquidate “[a]ny liquidated entries for which liquidation is final,” effectively ensuring that importers will not be time-barred from recovering IEEPA tariff refunds for imports that have reached final liquidation. The CIT further clarified that it does not address “issues concerning duty free de minimis treatment under 19 U.S.C. § 1321 that are otherwise before this Court.”⁴

II. CBP’s CAPE Refund System

After notifying the Court that it could not comply with the now-suspended order to begin issuing refunds immediately, CBP proposed — and the Court accepted — a plan to develop new software functionality within its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system. This new system is called the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE). CBP’s CAPE system has four components that are currently at varying levels of development:

(1) Claim Portal. Importers will upload a CSV of affected entry summaries via a new ACE Claim Portal tab. Testing on certain capabilities has been completed.

(2) Mass Processing. Automatically strips IEEPA HTS numbers and recalculates tariffs as if they did not exist. CBP estimates that it will be able to process approximately 63% of all IEEPA tariff entries within Phase 1.

(3) Review and Liquidation. Initiates liquidation/reliquidation and calculates interest. Testing is already underway.

(4) Refund. Consolidates refunds by date and importer and sends electronic payments.

As of March 30, 2026, CBP estimated that: (1) the Claim Portal is 85% complete, (2) the development of Mass Processing is 60% complete, (3) the development of the Review and Liquidation is 80% complete, and (4) the Refund mechanism is 75% complete, with testing in the upcoming weeks.⁵ Completion of the Refund mechanism is contingent on the full development of the other three components. 

CBP’s CAPE system is set to roll out in different phases. Phase 1 will only process unliquidated entries and entries within the 90-day voluntary liquidation period.⁶ It will not cover entries that have been flagged for reconciliation, entries designated on a drawback claim, entries covered by an open protest, entries not filed in ACE, entries without a liquidation status in ACE, and entries subject to antidumping and countervailing duties.

Once a submission is accepted through the Claim Portal, CBP will take up to 45 days to review and liquidate the validated entries. Submissions containing entries liquidated within the preceding 80 days will be reliquidated within the 90-day voluntary liquidation period. Further, CBP is expecting to develop additional functionalities in further phases of the CAPE system to ensure compliance with the CIT’s order and streamline refunds, including revenue enforcement for outstanding bills for non-IEEPA tariffs associated with imports. CBP has not set any deadlines for the upcoming phases of CAPE at this time, but it will provide information to the CIT as additional components are developed and implemented.

III. Expanded Case Management Denied

On March 18, 2026, Atmus Filtration moved to expand the CIT’s case management by creating a master case (e.g., In re IEEPA Tariff Cases) and appointing a Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee.⁷ The motion noted that approximately 2,500 IEEPA cases have been filed by over 350 lead counsel at more than 150 firms.⁸ The motion argued that “it is not clear whether the claims-based process proposed by CBP is consistent with CBP’s legal obligations to effectuate refunds of excess moneys deposited,” pursuant to 19 U.S.C. § 1505(b).⁹

The CIT swiftly denied the motion the same day in a one-page order.¹⁰ As a result, Atmus remains the sole plaintiff with a formal role, and broader importer input into CBP’s refund design is effectively foreclosed at this time.

IV. Next Steps for U.S. Importers

Verify ACE portal payment information. CBP will no longer issue paper refund checks,¹¹ and CBP has stated that all refunds will be issued electronically through the ACE portal. CBP’s systems are designed to allow electronic refunds to only the importer of record or a party designated to receive funds on its behalf via Form 4811. Importers should ensure that their payment information is up-to-date to avoid delays or risk leaving IEEPA tariff refund money on the table. As of March 26, 2026, 26,664 importers of record have completed the process to receive electronic refunds, constituting 78% of all entries for IEEPA tariffs valued at $120 billion.

Prepare submissions to the CAPE Claim Portal. All submissions to CAPE’s Claim Portal are required to be in CSV format. Importers that have IEEPA tariff data in differing formats should consolidate and prepare their submission before the claim portal goes live.   

Assess downstream exposure. Importers who passed IEEPA costs through to customers should expect refund demands from downstream purchasers, consumer advocates, and state attorneys general. Several consumer lawsuits have been brought by consumers seeking refunds of tariff costs that they have paid. Additional lawsuits may be filed as refunds are processed following the implementation of Phase 1.

The IEEPA refund process is fast-evolving, and the Administration has signaled that it will aggressively contest refunds and process refunds only upon a “final and unappealable decision . . . ordering defendants to refund the duties.”¹² Companies should continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as the legal landscape develops and each phase of CBP’s CAPE system is implemented.