On 15 July 2026, the U.S. Court of International Trade directed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to reliquidate, without IEEPA duties, plaintiffs’ entries liquidated more than 80 days ago.
The order closes a significant gap in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act refund process that had blocked litigant importers from recovering duties on older, finally liquidated entries.
Prior phases of the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system generally accepted only unliquidated entries and those liquidated within the preceding 80 days.
After that 80-day window, entries passed the 90-day threshold under 19 U.S.C. § 1501, beyond which CBP’s ordinary authority to voluntarily reliquidate an entry expires.
CBP had maintained that it required a court order specific to litigants before it could reopen and reliquidate those older entries, and the July 15 order supplies that authority for covered plaintiffs.
The refund process is not automatic, as plaintiffs’ counsel must first submit specified importer information and CBP must accept the corresponding CAPE declaration before ordering any reliquidation.
CBP will send plaintiffs’ counsel instructions for submitting identifying information, including each importer-of-record number, and plaintiffs do not need to request those instructions separately.
After counsel follows the instructions, importers may submit one or more CAPE declarations for covered entries liquidated more than 80 days ago, including entries that become final after an initial declaration is filed.
The July 15 order separates litigant refund proceedings from the government’s ongoing appeal, which challenges whether the CIT holds authority to grant relief to importers that did not file suit.
Litigant importers therefore need not await resolution of that appeal before pursuing refunds through the new CAPE process, giving them an accelerated and court-authorised path to recovering duties paid.
As of 10 July, CBP had accepted 24.4 million entries representing approximately $121.75 billion in potential and certified refunds, reflecting the considerable scale of the IEEPA duty refund operation.
CBP had also liquidated or reliquidated 16.74 million entries without IEEPA duties and transmitted approximately $86.3 billion in refunds and interest to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for disbursement.
CBP reported 4.77 million entry-level validation failures, and the new order may resolve one significant failure category for litigant importers whose entries were rejected for falling outside the ordinary 90-day reliquidation authority.
The order does not, however, cure unrelated defects including incorrect entry data, missing applicable IEEPA Chapter 99 tariff numbers, or duplicate submissions that have caused other validation failures.
CAPE also remains unable to process refunds for entries affected by duty drawback claims or impacted by antidumping and countervailing duties, and CBP has provided no anticipated date for adding that functionality.
Another 9,837 refunds had not been transmitted to Treasury because CBP lacked the required ACH information, making it critical for importers to confirm that CBP holds accurate payment details.
Importers should identify every entry excluded from prior CAPE declarations because it had been liquidated for more than 80 days and confirm each entry aligns with the correct plaintiff and importer-of-record number.
The July 15 order does not extend this new CAPE process to non-litigants, meaning importers that have not filed suit should promptly consult counsel about whether litigation may preserve additional refund rights.
Litigant importers should keep their Court of International Trade cases open until all material refund issues have been resolved and every expected payment has been received and reconciled.