On March 6, 2026, Brandon Lord, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (“CBP”) Executive Director for Trade Programs, filed a declaration with the U.S. Court of International Trade (“CIT”) in the ongoing Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States case and following up on an order issued by Judge Richard Eaton of the CIT issued earlier last week as reported on here.
The declaration of March 6, 2026 addressed the following issues related to a potential refund process for tariffs paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”):
- CBP’s Position on Refunds: CBP states that it cannot currently comply with the order due to the volume of the affected entries and CBP’s technical limitations. Processing the refunds with current resources, CBP argues, would pull staff away from other critical trade and security work.
- New IEEPA Refund Process Coming: CBP states that it is building a new, streamlined process to handle IEEPA refunds on both unliquidated and liquidated entries, which it hopes to launch in 45 days. CBP will provide guidance on the filing process once the system is ready. While still under development, the process may involve:
- Importers filing a declaration in CBP’s online portal (ACE) listing the affected entries
- The system automatically validating and re-calculating the duty owed and processing refunds (with interest)
- Aggregating refunds (with interest) by importer
- CBP certifying the refunds and the Department of the Treasury issuing the refunds electronically
Late on Friday, the Court ordered CBP to provide an update on the progress of its development of a process on March 12, 2026.
- Electronic Refunds Required: Effective February 6, 2026, CBP has sought to issue refunds electronically. However, many importers have not yet completed the necessary steps, which CBP states prevents it from processing those importers’ refunds. Additional information on this process can be found here.
- Action Items: Importers should ensure their ACE account is set up and that they have activated the automated refund authorization tool (ACH). Those who have not yet done so should visit https://ace-accounts.cbp.gov/s/importer-form to get started.
Following this declaration, the CIT suspended its Order for immediate refunds, no longer requiring CBP’s immediate compliance. Notably, it remains unclear whether the Government will file a petition before the U.S. Supreme Court for rehearing of the February 20, 2026 IEEPA decision and/or whether it will appeal any of the recent orders issues by the CIT seeking to implement the Supreme Court decision and with regard to how refunds should be handled.
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