Court of International Trade Delays Tariff Refund Order; CBP Outlines Automated Process

CBP Hopes to Have ACE-Managed Process Ready in Next 45 Days

On March 6, 2026, Judge Richard Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) suspended his prior order (of two days before) directing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to begin paying International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariff refunds “immediately”. This stay followed a conference in the case of Atmus Filtration, Inc. v United States, in which CBP made a declaration stating that, in processing over 53 million entries and approximately $166 billion of estimated duties and deposits paid thus far, the agency’s “existing procedures and technology” were “not suited to a task of this scale”.

Instead, CBP indicated that it is “confident that it can develop new ACE [Automated Commercial Environment] functionality that will streamline and consolidate refunds and interest payments on an importer basis” rather than processing over 53 million individual entry-specific refunds. CBP anticipates having this functionality ready within 45 days.

Once in place, the process (as detailed by CBP) would be as follows:

• The importer of record files an ACE declaration that itemizes the entries on which IEEPA-based tariffs have been paid.
• ACE then internally runs a series of validations on each of the entries and recalculates the duty owed without the IEEPA tariffs (plus interest).
• CBP verifies the declaration and processes the refunds as soon as practicable.
• ACE then automatically finalizes (liquidates or reliquidates) the entries.
• ACE automatically aggregates them (plus interest) by importer and date of liquidation.
• CBP certifies the IEEPA refunds.
• Treasury then issues them electronically.

Registration With ACE

Under this process, CBP advised that importers will not be able to receive funds unless they have registered with ACE and completed the process of setting up their ACE account to receive refunds electronically. This mandate is in accord with the recently published CBP Rule (Electronic Funds Interim Final Rule, FR Document 2025-24171 , January 2, 2026), effective February 6, and instructional Guidance found here: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCBP/bulletins/4062d5a. Until importers complete the process to receive refunds electronically, the refunds “will be rejected”, according to CBP. CBP notes that, to date, less than 10% of importers recorded as having paid IEEPA tariffs or deposits (fewer than 22,000 of more than 330,000) have completed setting up their accounts as required.

Further Tariff Refund Possibilities

This development is unlikely to be the end of the story on the refunds. Note that the government can still appeal CIT’s recent orders to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and/or possibly seek a rehearing at the U.S. Supreme Court (which appears only remotely likely, but nonetheless possible).

Prudent importers should still file Post Summary Corrections for unliquidated entries for which they have paid or deposited IEEPA tariffs, and/or protest any liquidations for entries still within the 180-day period for doing so. Consideration — in consultation with counsel — should be given to filing a claim directly in the CIT, especially for any liquidated entries past the protest deadline for which a suit at the CIT may be the only recourse.