06.08.2026 Regulation #USA #Import #Duties #Statistics

US refunds $100 billion in IEEPA tariffs struck down by top court

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has refunded about $100 billion in duties collected under tariffs imposed via the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which the Supreme Court ruled unlawful on February 20, 2026. The figure comes from a declaration by Brandon Lord, CBP's Executive Director for Trade Programs, filed August 4 with the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) in the class action Freestyle World, Inc. v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where the court had ordered a status update. The refunded amount represents about 60% of the $166 billion the administration collected under IEEPA tariffs in 2025 (Yahoo Finance).

How the CAPE refund pipeline works

Refunds run through a new CBP module, Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE), built inside the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). CAPE's first phase went live April 20, 2026, with added functionality for reconciliation-flagged entries deployed June 29. As of July 31, importers had filed 252,496 CAPE declarations, of which 178,213 passed validation — the rest were rejected mainly over importer-record or entry-number mismatches — covering 25.1 million import entries. In total, $128.68 billion in potential and certified refunds have been accepted into CAPE processing; of that, a certified $100 billion (duties plus interest) has been sent to the Treasury Department for disbursement.

Who is affected and what it means for importers

The refunds cover companies that paid IEEPA's "reciprocal" and country-specific duties on goods from China, Canada and Mexico in 2025. Some payments remain stuck: CBP reports 19,726 refunds worth roughly $1.6 billion have not been transmitted to Treasury because the importer of record or its CBP Form 4811 designee has not supplied Automated Clearing House banking information — affected companies should update those details in ACE. Democratic Rep. Greg Casar said the refunds are flowing mainly to companies rather than ordinary consumers (kfgo.com). The administration has kept pursuing similar levies through other authority: a global 10% Section 122 tariff took effect February 24, 2026 to replace IEEPA duties, but the CIT ruled on May 7, 2026 that it too exceeded presidential authority — though the injunction applied only to three plaintiffs (Skadden), leaving the tariff in force for other importers until its statutory expiration.

Appeal and filing deadlines

The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal to the Federal Circuit on June 2, 2026, contesting CBP's obligation to reprocess older, already-liquidated entries, and is expected to seek a stay of the refund order for importers not party to the litigation (Jackson Walker). Section 122 tariffs expired on July 24, 2026 (Skadden; Troutman Pepper Locke) and were replaced that same day by new Section 301 duties of 10–12.5% on 60 economies, imposed by USTR over forced-labor enforcement failures — this time with no statutory sunset (OIA Global; Dimerco). Importers that paid IEEPA duties starting in early 2025 have a two-year window to sue in the CIT; Jackson Walker notes that for the earliest 2025 entries, that deadline will begin expiring in early 2027.

Primary sources

This material is for information only and does not constitute legal advice or customs consulting. Verify changes against the primary sources before acting.