Tariff refunds: Court expands scope to include finally liquidated entries
Importers who paid invalidated Trump administration tariffs will be eligible to receive refunds on a greater range of entries, per a Friday filing from the Court of International Trade.
In the filing, Senior Judge Richard Eaton amended a previous order that called on Customs and Border Protection to ignore tariffs installed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act when liquidating unprocessed or unfinalized entries.
The amended order now includes similar instructions for finally liquidated entries, with the court directing CBP to reliquidate such entries “without regard” for IEEPA tariffs, which the Supreme Court struck down last month.
“This is a meaningful development,” James Kim, an international trade partner at ArentFox Schiff, said in a LinkedIn post. “Earlier orders focused on unliquidated and non-final entries, leaving uncertainty around whether the Court would order refunds for this subset of entries.”
Along with the addition, the court also maintained a stay on the order to give CBP more time to develop a system to process IEEPA tariff refunds. Following the initial liquidation order, the agency said it could not immediately comply with the instructions but was developing a refund system.
The agency has since provided two court-ordered updates on the development of a four-step refund process, known as the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system. Most recently, the CBP said the four components of CAPE were between 45% and 80% complete. The agency is scheduled to deliver another update on Tuesday.
“Bottom line: the Court has now made clear that all IEEPA-affected entries—unliqudiated, liquidated but not final, and liquidated and final—are within the scope of relief, with timing dependent on further court and CBP action,” Kelly Nelson, managing director of trade and customs at KPMG, said in a LinkedIn post.
