- within Antitrust/Competition Law, Finance and Banking, Litigation and Mediation & Arbitration topic(s)
In the course of litigation culminating in the February 20, 2026, U.S. Supreme Court decision in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump (see previous alert), which invalidated U.S. global tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”), some 3,700 cases have been filed at the Court of International Trade (“CIT”), seeking tariff refunds plus interest. To date, Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) has opened the refund process to two categories or phases of entries:
- Those that were unliquidated (that is, not subject to finalized duty calculations) or within 80 days after liquidation.
- "Reconciliation entries” – that is, entries for which final, correct information was provided at a later date (see previous alert).
These CBP actions left open the question of what would happen to so-called “phase 3” fully liquidated entries, as to which CBP argued in a June 2026 appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that neither it nor the CIT had authority to order tariff refunds (see previous alert).
In a July 17, 2026, order the CIT has now acted to provide a pathway for tariff refunds for fully liquidated entries. Specifically, if an importer already has a filed civil complaint before the CIT that includes fully liquidated entries, it will receive instructions from the court to enable it to qualify for a CIT “reliquidation” order, restoring it to unliquidated status. For importers that do not have a pending case at the CIT, it appears it will be necessary to initiate such a legal action to ensure their liquidated entries can be reliquidated and thereby become eligible for submission to CBP when it opens its automated refund process to phase 3 submissions in the near future. While there may yet be some additional avenue for seeking refunds for fully liquidated entries, this is uncertain, and the July 17 order establishes a clear path for importers with entries in this category to move forward now to seek refunds.
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