On March 6, 2026, U.S. CBP informed the Court of International Trade that it is not yet prepared to process court-ordered refunds of tariffs imposed under IEEPA. CBP indicated that it expects to develop new functionality in ACE within approximately 45 days to streamline the refund process.
Under the proposed process, importers would file a declaration in ACE identifying entries on which IEEPA duties were paid. ACE would then validate the entries, recalculate duties without the IEEPA tariffs, apply applicable interest, and automatically liquidate or reliquidate the entries. Refunds would be aggregated and issued electronically by the Department of the Treasury.
CBP advised that this new process is necessary due to the significant manual work currently required to issue IEEPA tariff refunds. The agency noted that processing refunds on an entry-by-entry basis would be operationally burdensome, as more than 53 million entries were subject to IEEPA tariffs, including over 20 million unliquidated entries. CBP also stated that many importers have not yet completed the setup required to receive electronic refunds through ACE, which could further delay payments. The declaration suggests that the refund process could take months or longer to complete for all affected importers.
Following CBP’s filing, the Court of International Trade suspended its March 4 order requiring immediate refunds while CBP works to implement the proposed automated process. The Department of Justice has indicated it intends to appeal the underlying decision regarding IEEPA tariff refunds. The situation remains ongoing, and further guidance from CBP is expected.