IEEPA Refunds for Liquidated Entries: What Importers Must Do Now to Preserve IEEPA Refund Rights

On July 15, 2026, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) issued an order that establishes a framework claiming IEEPA refunds for entries that have already liquidated.

In general, the liquidation date is 314 days after the date of entry. When CBP liquidates an entry it effectively finalizes the duties, taxes and fees due.

CBP has limited the filing IEEPA declarations in the CAPE portal to unliquidated entries and entries that liquidated in the past 80 days as of April 20, 2026. This generally included shipments entered from March 2025 on.

If your business paid IEEPA tariffs — the duties the Supreme Court struck down in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump — and some of those entries have already liquidated, the next several weeks may determine whether you recover those duties or lose them permanently. Here is what the order does, why “already liquidated” is the pivotal question, and the concrete steps to protect your claim.

What the July 15 Order Actually Does

Judge Eaton’s order :

• It commits the court to a reliquidation order. In connection with the anticipated launch of Phase 3 of Customs’ Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) system, the CIT will enter an order directing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to reliquidate certain finally liquidated entries, following a procedure to be spelled out in that order. That reliquidation order will be entered in each of the roughly 3,700 IEEPA cases assigned to the court.
• It names a new lead case. With the prior lead plaintiff intending to dismiss, the court will lift the stay in Freestyle World, Inc. v. United States, Court No. 26-01088 — a case that already carries a pending motion for class certification.
• It flags relief for protested entries. The court noted ongoing work to build CAPE functionality for entries with open protests, a category that currently has no CAPE refund path.
• It sets near-term deadlines. CBP must file a CAPE progress report by August 4, 2026, with a closed settlement conference on August 5, 2026.

Note the reliquidation relief for finally liquidated entries is being entered only in the cases of importers who have filed suit at the CIT. The government’s stated position is that CBP has no authority to reliquidate a finally liquidated entry, or issue a refund on it, without an importer-specific court order — and that position is now on appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. For importers who never filed suit, the finally-liquidated question remains genuinely unresolved.

Liquidation and IEEPA Refund Eligibility

Liquidation is CBP’s final computation of the duties owed on an entry. Once it happens, a countdown begins that puts your refunds at stake.

CAPE Phases 1 and 2 coved unliquidated entries and entries liquidated only recently — those still within the window in which CBP can voluntarily reprocess them. Everything older falls into the finally liquidated bucket, where CBP maintains it cannot act on its own. That is precisely the category the July 15 order addresses, and precisely the category where your rights are most fragile.

For preserving rights, two deadlines govern already-liquidated entries:

1. The 180-day protest window. Under 19 U.S.C. § 1514(c)(3), an importer has 180 days from the date of liquidation to file a protest. A timely protest keeps the entry from becoming final and preserves the refund claim administratively.
2. The two-year litigation deadline. A refund action invoking the CIT’s residual jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i) is subject to a two-year statute of limitations under 28 U.S.C. § 2636(i). Because the accrual date is not free from doubt, this is not a deadline to test at the margins.

Whether an entry is within the protest window or past it changes your entire strategy.

Action Plan: IEEPA Refunds for Liquidated Entries

1. Inventory every IEEPA entry — and record the liquidation date

Access your entry history in ACE and track the liquidation dates.

2. For entries liquidated within the last 180 days — file a protest now

You may have liquidated entries that are no longer eligible for CAPE refund claims (80 days within liquidation), but are still within the window for protest filings. File a protest for these entries to preserve your rights.

3. For finally liquidated entries — evaluate filing suit at the CIT, and do it now

Once the 180-day protest window has closed, the administrative door is shut. Under the July 15 framework, the reliquidation order and CAPE Phase 3 relief for finally liquidated entries run only to importers who have filed litigation at the CIT. If you have finally liquidated entries carrying meaningful IEEPA duties and you have not filed suit, a § 1581(i) action is the mechanism that moves you inside the group the court intends to help — and the two-year clock under § 2636(i) is running. Waiting for the Federal Circuit to resolve the universal-injunction appeal is a gamble: if the government prevails on the scope question, non-litigants may be left without a remedy on these entries.

4. Watch the class actions — but do not rely on them

Two tracks could, in principle, extend relief to non-litigants: the pending class certification motion in the new lead case, Freestyle World (No. 26-01088), and a parallel motion to certify a class of importers with claims not eligible for CAPE processing in V.O.S. Selections (No. 25-00066). Class certification is one of the recognized exceptions to the general prohibition on universal relief. But certification is not guaranteed, its timing is uncertain, and its scope may not match your entries. Monitor these motions as a potential backstop, not as your primary strategy.

Key Dates to Track

• August 4, 2026 — CBP’s next CAPE progress report is due.
• August 5, 2026 — Closed settlement conference before Judge Eaton.
• Federal Circuit appeal — The government’s challenge to universal refund relief for non-litigants is pending; the outcome will determine whether finally-liquidated relief ever reaches importers who did not sue.

The Bottom Line

The July 15 order builds a real refund path for finally liquidated entries — but it lays that path for litigants first. For entries still inside the protest window, a timely protest is the simplest way to preserve your rights. For entries already finally liquidated, the safest course is to become a plaintiff before the two-year deadline runs, rather than betting on an appeal or a class you do not control. Every one of these steps turns on dates that are already moving, which makes an entry-by-entry review the urgent first task.

If you wish to file suit or a protest to secure your IEEPA refunds for liquidated entries please contact us at 202.830.0300 or info@liebermanpllc.com.

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This post is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. IEEPA refund eligibility, protest deadlines, and litigation timelines are fact-specific and evolving. Importers should consult qualified customs counsel to evaluate their particular entries before acting.