The U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) has taken a decisive step forward in the IEEPA duty refund process: CIT Judge Eaton has issued reliquidation orders in each of the approximately 4,000 IEEPA individual importer dockets.
The principal takeaway is that only importers that have individual cases pending before the CIT will be authorized to apply for refunds of IEEPA tariffs paid on imports that have been “finally liquidated.”
For importers with entries more than 80 days past liquidation (which fall outside the current reach of the government’s CAPE refund system), it is clear from the latest court order that the fastest path to recovery is filing an individual lawsuit before the CIT, if you have not done so already. For those importers with cases pending, plaintiffs’ counsel have all received direction from the CIT on how to qualify their clients for this phase of the CAPE refunds.
1. Background: The CAPE Bottleneck for Entries More Than 80 Days Past Liquidation
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) began accepting refund claims through the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE, system within its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) on April 20, 2026, and currently accepts CAPE declarations for unliquidated entries and for entries up to 80 days past liquidation.[1]
Where entries of merchandise are more than 80 days past liquidation, the process for obtaining a refund is now definitively more complex. CBP has formally asserted that it lacks the legal authority to issue IEEPA refunds on entries more than 90 days past liquidation absent an importer-specific judgment. CAPE has therefore set an 80-day post-liquidation deadline for refunds under the current version of CAPE (ostensibly to provide 10 days of administrative buffer). This reliquidation issue is currently the subject of litigation before the Federal Circuit, litigation which is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.
2. Key Developments: The CIT Has Begun Issuing Specific Reliquidation Orders
To resolve this bottleneck, CIT Judge Eaton began issuing reliquidation orders in all approximately 4,000 IEEPA cases last week.
Critically, those orders are now appearing on individual importer dockets, and for suits filed since July 20, 2026, reliquidation orders are posting within days of filing. Filing an individual suit under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i) before the CIT is therefore likely the most reliable path to securing duty refunds as to entries more than 80 days past liquidation.
This is a major development. For months, importers with entries more than 80 days past liquidation have faced an uncertain path to recovery. The CIT’s move to issue importer-specific reliquidation orders confirms that each importer of record should seek a specific judgment (i.e., their own Section 1581(i) suit before the CIT) for CBP to grant refunds on entries more than 80 days past liquidation. Without a docket of their own, importers with entries more than 80 days past liquidation risk further uncertainty.
3. CAPE Phase 3: Available Only for Those Who Have Filed Suit
CAPE Phase 3, the mechanism by which CBP will process refunds for entries more than 80 days past liquidation, is imminent. Judge Eaton has stated that plaintiff importers will be required to first submit to CBP certain information, including their importer of record (IOR) numbers. The CIT has begun providing confidential instructions to 1581(i) plaintiffs’ counsel on how to access Phase 3 refunds. This process is available exclusively to importers who have already filed suit and obtained a reliquidation order in their own docket: importers who have not filed have no access to it.
4. Time Is of the Essence: A Growing Queue of Importers Has Already Filed
With word spreading of the CIT’s action and the concrete refund instructions now flowing confidentially to importers who filed suit, a substantial and growing number of importers are now filing Section 1581(i) protective actions.
The practical consequence is straightforward: the appropriate recovery path for entries more than 80 days past liquidation is individual CIT litigation under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i), and the order in which those cases are docketed matters. Importers who file sooner are better positioned to receive reliquidation orders, and their refund instructions, ahead of those who wait. With approximately $11.4 billion in IEEPA duties at stake on entries more than 80 days past liquidation alone, the competition for a place in the refund queue is real and intensifying.
5. What Importers Should Do Now
Given the accelerating pace of CIT activity, importers with IEEPA entries more than 80 days past liquidation should take the following steps immediately:
- File a Section 1581(i) suit without delay, if not filed already. Filing an individual suit under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i) before the CIT is the most reliable path to securing duty refunds as to entries more than 80 days past liquidation. Each day of delay is a day further back in the queue.
- Compile entry data now. To ensure a filing is accurate and complete when the time comes, importers should compile: the total amount of IEEPA duties paid on entries more than 80 days past liquidation for which no protest is pending; the total amount of IEEPA duties paid on entries more than 80 days past liquidation for which no CAPE declaration has been filed; and a complete list of the associated entry numbers for all such entries.
- Do not withdraw open protests. To the extent importers previously filed protests with CBP under 19 U.S.C. § 1514 on entries where IEEPA duties were assessed, we recommend not withdrawing those protests until the details of CAPE Phase 3 are made clear.
- Do not file additional protests on entries approaching the 80-day mark if a reliquidation order has already been entered. Filing additional protests risks routing those entries into a separate, slower CAPE processing track with no clear timeline, and may require protests to be withdrawn before a Phase 3 claim can be submitted, introducing unnecessary administrative delays.
- Monitor ongoing proceedings. Broader tariff risk for U.S. importers remains substantial, and importers should pursue refund rights promptly, monitor proceedings closely, and reassess their supply chains and duty mitigation strategies accordingly.
We are actively monitoring these developments and are available to discuss the implications for your specific entries at any time.
FOOTNOTES
[1] “Liquidation” means the final computation or ascertainment of duties on entries. See 19 C.F.R. § 159.1.