The IEEPA Refund Clock Is Ticking: Why Some Importers Are Getting Paid Faster Than Others

Since the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs in February, CBP has refunded roughly $100 billion of the $166 billion owed to about 330,000 importers through its CAPE (Collection of Additional Processing and Entries) portal. That's real progress. But a series of Court of International Trade orders issued this summer revealed something importers need to understand: not everyone is getting paid on the same timeline, and the difference often comes down to whether you filed a lawsuit.

What changed this summer

On July 13, 2026, CIT Chief Judge Mark Barnett issued Administrative Order 26-01, rescinding the standing order that had automatically paused new IEEPA refund lawsuits since December 2025. Two days later, in an order affecting the lead case in this line of litigation, the court directed CBP to refund IEEPA duties on "any and all" of that plaintiff's entries that had been liquidated for more than 80 days — and made clear it intends to enter the same relief across the roughly 3,700 similar cases pending at the CIT.

The practical effect, according to trade counsel at Holland & Knight and Troutman Pepper Locke, is that importers who filed suit are now getting court-ordered, full refunds pushed through CAPE on a defined schedule, with CBP filing regular progress reports to the court. Importers who never filed and are relying solely on the administrative CAPE process are still in the queue — and for a specific category of entries, that queue may not move at all without a lawsuit.

The catch: "finally liquidated" entries

Here's where it gets consequential. The Department of Justice has told the CIT that CBP does not have statutory authority to reliquidate entries outside the 90-day post-liquidation window unless the importer has an active case in court. CBP has said the next phase of CAPE — the one that would cover these "finally liquidated" entries — will only be programmed for importers who filed an action at the CIT. In other words, for entries where liquidation became final more than 90 days ago, sitting on the sidelines and waiting for CBP to process a refund automatically may not work.

Layered on top of that is a separate, harder deadline that applies regardless of any of this litigation: under 19 U.S.C. § 1514, importers have 180 days from the date of liquidation to file a protest. Courts treat that window as jurisdictional — miss it, and a late protest isn't just denied, it's treated as if it never existed. Many trade attorneys are now advising clients to file protective protests on affected entries purely to preserve their rights while the bigger litigation and CAPE rollout continue to unfold.

What this means for your entries

If your company paid IEEPA tariffs between the initial 2025 executive orders and the February 2026 termination, the questions worth answering this week are:

• What is the liquidation status of each affected entry? Unliquidated and recently liquidated entries are in a different posture than entries liquidated more than 90 days ago.
• Are any entries approaching the 180-day protest deadline? That clock runs from liquidation, not from when the tariffs were paid, and it does not pause for pending litigation or CAPE processing.
• Have you actually filed a claim, or are you assuming CBP will find you? CAPE is the required administrative channel for unliquidated entries, but for finally liquidated entries, the emerging pattern suggests a CIT filing may be necessary to get programmed into the next phase.

What to do this week

1. Pull entry summaries and liquidation dates for every entry that included IEEPA duties.
2. Flag any entry approaching the 180-day protest deadline from its liquidation date.
3. Confirm your CAPE claim status in ACE for entries still unliquidated or within the reconciliation window.
4. For entries already finally liquidated, talk to trade counsel now about whether a protective protest or CIT filing is warranted — waiting for CBP to act on its own may not preserve your refund.

Guy Lichtenstein CHB Corp files and tracks entries for importers nationwide from our Miami headquarters, and we monitor liquidation and protest deadlines as a standard part of that service — not just for shipments moving through South Florida. If you're not sure where your entries stand on this timeline, or you need a broker who can pull the liquidation history and flag what's at risk before a deadline passes, reach out to our team.