In the year since President Trump’s April 2, 2025 “Liberation Day,” U.S. trade policy has rapidly developed. Most recently, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision invalidating tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”), the Trump Administration has explored new tariffing authority, such as Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, and expanded its reliance on trusted tariffing methods, like Section 301 Trade Act of 1974—all the while developing a process to refund importers duties paid under IEEPA tariff regimes. We explore notable developments below.
IEEPA Tariff Refunds
In recent months, the U.S. Court of International Trade (“CIT”) issued a series of orders directing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“Customs” or “CBP”) to liquidate all entries that were entered subject to IEEPA duties without regard to such duties, and without regard to whether those entries are unliquidated, not finally liquidated, or finally liquidated.
In response to those orders, CBP is developing an online portal for importers of record (“IORs”) to request refunds, including applicable interest, of tariffs unlawfully collected pursuant to IEEPA. The Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (“CAPE”) functionality within the Automated Commercial Environment (“ACE”) will be rolled out in multiple phases, with Phase I announced to begin April 20.
In Phase I, IORs and authorized customs brokers may request refunds of (1) unliquidated entries and (2) entries liquidated within the past 80 days. However, certain types of entries will not be eligible for refunds as part of Phase I, including:
- entries for which duty drawback is claimed;
- unliquidated entries of merchandise subject to antidumping or countervailing duty orders; and
- entries covered by an open protest.
The Declaration Process
Parties seeking refunds must file a Declaration within CAPE. All CAPE Declarations must be in a comma-separated values (.csv) file format and identify the entries for which refunds are requested. A single CAPE Declaration is limited to 9,999 entries. Parties may file as many Declarations as necessary to recover all duties paid under the unlawful IEEPA tariff regimes.
Once a Declaration has been submitted, CBP will validate the entry numbers provided to confirm that the entry number exists and the IOR requesting the refund is the same as the IOR submitting the entry. Duplicate entry numbers, entries flagged for reconciliation, and entries tagged as duty deferral, duty drawback, or temporary import under bond will be rejected.
Customs will process refunds only after successful validation. Parties whose Declarations are rejected during the validation process (either in whole or in part) will need to correct and resubmit the affected entry numbers to CBP.
CBP predicts that refunds for validated entries will be issued within 60 to 90 days of acceptance of the CAPE Declaration, unless additional Customs review is necessary. In addition, “[i]mporters and brokers that submit CAPE Declarations or receive IEEPA duty refunds must ensure they have an active ACE Portal account that includes bank account information for refunds, which is separate from bank account information for payments.” CBP will not process refunds without this information.
Next Steps
CBP has indicated that entries that do not qualify for Phase 1 processing will be captured by future CAPE phases. Parties should continue to monitor CBP’s Cargo Systems Messaging Service (“CSMS”) and other official channels for IEEPA refund updates.
While CBP has, so far, complied with the CIT’s orders and largely completed development of the CAPE functionality to process IEEPA refunds, that does not necessarily mean the Trump Administration will authorize refunds without issue. It remains possible that the Administration will appeal the CIT’s orders.
For entries that are not eligible for Phase I because liquidation occurred on or before January 30, 2026 (i.e., more than 80 days prior to the April 20 availability of CAPE), importers may wish to consider options to prevent finalization of liquidation, including by filing protests with CBP. The deadline for filing such protests is generally 180 days after liquidation.
Section 232 Tariff Updates
On April 2, President Trump issued two Proclamations pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended (“Section 232”).
Proclamation 11021 – Steel, Copper, and Aluminum Derivative Products
Proclamation 11021 modifies the Section 232 tariffs imposed on imported steel, copper, and aluminum derivative products. The tariff now applies to the full customs value of the article, regardless of the metal content. The rate is 50 percent for items of base metal identified in the Proclamation, and 25 percent for derivative products identified in the Proclamation. CBP also clarified that “[g]oods that are listed as articles or derivatives of more than one metal shall only be subject to one of the respective duty rates established by . . . Proclamation [11021], even if the good contains aluminum and steel, aluminum and copper, steel and copper, or all three metals.”
Proclamation 11021 took effect on April 6, 2026.
Proclamation 11020 – Pharmaceuticals
Issued concurrently with Proclamation 11021, Proclamation 11020 imposes a 100 percent tariff on certain pharmaceuticals and associated pharmaceutical ingredients, as set forth in Annex I to the Proclamation (the “covered products”).
Companies with plans approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce to onshore production in the United States will be permitted—for a period of four years—to import covered products at a 20 percent tariff rate. On April 2, 2030, the 20 percent rate will increase to 100 percent.
Pursuant to previously negotiated trade deals, covered products originating in Japan, the European Union (“EU”), South Korea, Switzerland, and Lichenstein will be subject to a 15 percent tariff rate. Covered products originating in the United Kingdom (“UK”) will face a Section 232 duty of 10 percent unless a future agreement reduces that duty to zero percent.
The tariffs imposed by Proclamation 11020 will take effect on July 31, 2026 for companies identified in Annex III to the Proclamation and September 29, 2026 for all other companies not expressly identified.
