Court Rules the 10% General Tariff is Illegal; Expect an Appeal

May 11, 2026 by 1 Comment

Less than three months have gone by since the new section 122 tariffs were announced and the Court of International Trade has already held that these tariffs were illegal.

These tariffs were less of a burden to aviation because of the large number of exceptions that included most aircraft parts; however the Sectrion 122 tariffs excluded aviation through a list of tariff codes, and some aircraft parts tariff codes were left off of the list (like certain aircraft heat exchangers, for example).

Do I Get a Refund?

Not yet.

The Court of International Trade issued an injunction in favor of the plaintiff but not in favor of anyone else. This means that the ruling does not have nationwide effect (remember, the Supreme Court decided that nationwide injunctions were beyond the power of the federal courts). This means that generally when the United States is found to be violating the law by a federal trial court, the United States can only be prevented from further violations with respect to the named plaintiffs.

What this means in our case is that the 10% tariff remains in effect until the Court of International Trade orders a different remedy, the government decides to provide a remedy, or the appellate courts (including the Supreme Court) order a broader remedy.

While the industry waits for this to get resolved, it makes sense to retain records of the tariffs you pay for your imports, as well as the amount of duty you pay under each tariff. Effective records can make it easier for you to identify what tariffs are may have been invalidated and whether you are permitted to apply for a refund of the duties paid under the invalidated tariffs.

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IEEPA Refunds Applications Start Monday

April 18, 2026 by Leave a comment

Many of ASA’s members paid a significant amount in IEPPA duties. Those duties were ruled illegal and now we have an opportunity to seek a refund. Rather than using its own resources to provide refunds of 100% of the illegal duties, the government is requiring those who paid the illegal duties to affirmatively apply for the refunds. At present, if you fail to apply then you may lose out on those refunds!

The U.S. government has developed the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) mechanism. This is a part of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system. It is the government’s mechanism for processing refunds for Importers of Record (IOR) who have paid the duties that were ruled illegal.

In summary, requesting refunds of IEEPA duties requires a little bit of infrstructure:

  • The applicant should be the Importers of Record (IOR) or the IOR’s authorized Customs broker (who filed the import records for the IOR);
  • The applicant should have an ACE Portal account;
  • The refund recipients should have already used the ACE Portal account to establish bank account information for electronic refunds;
  • The IOR (or the IOR’s authorized Customs broker) submits the CAPE Declaration in the ACE Portal (in the form of a CSV file).

The CAPE process starts with the filing of the CAPE Declaration in the ACE Portal by the IOR or the authorized broker who filed entries on behalf of the IOR. This CAPE Declaration will include a comma-separated values (CSV) file that is uploaded to the new CAPE tab in the ACE system. The CAPE tab will be available in the Importer, Organizational Broker, and Filer sub-accounts in ACE. The CSV file, called a CAPE Declaration, will contain a list of entry numbers for which IEEPA refunds are requested. Each individual CAPE Declaration is limited to 9,999 entries, but multiple CAPE Declarations may be submitted. A downloadable
CAPE Declaration template file will be available through the “Upload” button in the CAPE tab – use this to ensure you are formatting the file the right way.

Once the CSV file has been uploaded, the CAPE system will validate the submission and provide feedback to the filer as described below. For valid entry numbers, ACE will update the entry summary lines to remove the dutiable IEEPA Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) Chapter 99 codes and duties, resulting in a new version of the entry summary. Once the IEEPA duties have been removed, ACE will recalculate the duties owed without the dutiable IEEPA HTS code(s). In general, following CBP review, entries will be liquidated or reliquidated, and refunds will be consolidated and then issued.

If your entries were filed through your customs broker, then please work with your customs broker to file the CAPE Declaration and process the refund application.

ACE Portal users with Importer sub-account access can monitor refund activity using ACE Reports. The REV-603 Trade Refund report covers successful refunds. The REV-613 ACH Rejected Refunds report highlights any refunds that have been rejected due to the recipient not being enrolled in ACH Refunds.

To learn more, check out CBP’s CAPE Information Notice.

CAPE is a brand-new system – don’t be surprised if there are some unexpected hurdles. If you run into problems with the CAPE system, then let us know (and if you solve them, then let us know how you solved them so we can spread the word to the entire community).

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All CBP Refunds Are Now Electronic – Get Your Account Ready If It Isn’t Already Prepared

March 17, 2026 by Leave a comment

Many companies in the ASA community are anticipating refund applications based on the recent Supreme Court case (Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump) that ruled some IEEPA tariffs to be illegal, and the Court of International Trade tariff order directing the duties to be refunded.

There are reports that today, CBP amended its order, to remove the “immediacy” from the requirement to issue refunds. But the refunds still have to be issued. CBP is creating the CAPE system within ACE and has suggested that it could be ready within 45 days of the CIT order (so, mid-to-late-April).

In order to make use of the CAPE system – indeed in order to receive any refund – you will need an ACE account. This is because CBP recently changed the rules to require all refunds to be processed through the ACE system. Some importers rely on their customs broker or their carrier to process all of the imports, and may not yet have an ACE account. If that is your situation, then now is the time to obtain an ACE account.

The expected tariff refund process will be something like this:

  1. File a declaration that itemizes the entries on which you’ve paid IEEPA-based duties; this will be filed within the ACE system (probably within the CAPE subsystem)
  2. The ACE system validates the application against its own data and recalculates the duty owed without the IEEPA tariffs (to verify the refund amount)
  3. CBP verifies the declaration and processes the refunds
  4. CBP liquidates or reliquidates each validated entry
  5. The ACE system should allow CBP to certify that the refund is owed and then the refund will be released by the Treasury
  6. The refund will be deposited in the bank account that you registered for electronic refunds, through your ACE account

U.S. CBP has published a number of resources to assist in obtaining ACE accounts and setting them up to process refunds.

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Tariffs are Illegal – How Do I get My Refund?

February 20, 2026 by 1 Comment

By now, everyone has seen the headline: Many of the tariffs imposed by the Administration have been declared illegal by the Supreme Court in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump. The Court ruled that the IEEPA did not support issuing those HTSUS Chapter 99 tariffs. Since it was illegal to collect the tariffs, those that have already been collected likely need to be refunded to those who paid them. Many companies in the ASA community paid tariffs and I am sure that those who paid would like to get refunds if it is possible.

It is possible that the administration may create a streamlined mechanism for seeking/issuing tariff refunds. This article describes processes under current law and regulations. We have reached out to the government to seek advice on streamlined filing for refunds, and to offer assistance in streamlining the refund process.

The first step is to assess which tariffs you paid, and which of those were illegal. Not all tariffs were ruled to be illegal – only certain ones. For example, if you imported a bearing last July, and you paid a 9% duty for that bearing under HTSUS chapter 84 PLUS an additional 20% Chapter 99 tariff based on the fact that the bearing’s origin was from the European Union (total of 29% duty), then it is likely that the 9% duty from the base tariff was legal but the 20% duty could be covered under the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.

By and large, the illegal tariffs were issued under HTSUS Chapter 99 so if the basis of the duty that you paid was under another HTSUS chapter then it might have been a legal tariff. Also, some of the HTSUS Chapter 99 tariffs (like steel and aluminum) were issued under other justifications (not under the IEEPA) and those would remain unaffected by today’s ruling.

Once you’ve identified duties that you paid that might be covered by the Supreme Court’s ruling, the next step is to assess whether the import has been liquidated or not. The term Liquidation means the final computation or ascertainment of duties on thing sthat are entered into the United States for consumption. Liquidation usually happens between 300 and 360 days after the import entry (the government aims for an average of 314 days, but our recent assessment found that the average was 330-335 days).

If your import has not yet been liquidated, then you may be able to perform a post-summary correction. Typically this can be accomplished within 300 days of entry but also at least 15 days before liquidation. This is processed through the ACE system. If you discover an error, there is actually a legal obligation to file a correction.

If the 300-day window has passed or the entry has been liquidated, then you can no longer file a post summary correction. Instead, you may be able to file a protest. Protests typically are required to be filed within 180 days of liquidation.

Protests are filed using CBP Form 19. You can file this as a paper form (in which case it must be filed in quadruplicate, and sent to the Port Director) or you can file it online through ACE. If you file a paper copy then we usually advise that you send a fifth copy and a self-addressed stamped envelope in order to get a date-stamped copy back from CBP (as proof of receipt). The filing is considered filed when it is received (not when it is mailed) so make sure it gets to the destination on time!

When you file CBP Form 19, you need to be as specific as you can be. Make sure you provide this information:

  • Identify what is wrong
  • Explain why it is wrong
  • Provide evidence
  • Explain what the corrected entry should be

In the online/electronic form the space to provide this information is small, so don’t be afraid to write up your full argument on a separate document and attach it.

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