Customs refunds $166B to importers

U.S. Customs and Border Protection opened its refund system on April 20 for tariffs the Supreme Court said were illegally imposed under emergency-powers law. (cbp.gov) (bakertilly.com) The ruling covered duties collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, not every U.S. tariff. FedEx says Customs stopped collecting those IEEPA duties on goods entering the United States after 12:00 a.m. EST on February 24, 2026. (fedex.com) (bakertilly.com) The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on February 20 that IEEPA did not authorize the broad import duties at issue. The Court of International Trade then ordered refunds with interest for most of the money already collected. (bakertilly.com) (dwt.com) Court filings and trade-law analyses put the total at about $166 billion paid by more than 330,000 importers across tens of millions of entries. That makes this one of the largest customs refund exercises the agency has had to process. (dwt.com) (skadden.com) Customs built a new tool called CAPE inside its Automated Commercial Environment portal to handle the claims in batches instead of one shipment at a time. Phase 1 is narrower: it covers certain unliquidated entries and certain entries within 80 days of liquidation. (cbp.gov 1) (cbp.gov 2) Only the importer of record, or the customs broker that filed on that importer’s behalf, can submit a CAPE declaration. Customs also requires bank information in the portal before it will issue any refund. (cbp.gov 1) (cbp.gov 2) That detail decides who gets paid first. If UPS, FedEx or DHL acted as the importer of record, Customs sends the refund to the carrier, and the carrier then has to pass the money to the party that originally paid the duty. (ups.com) (fedex.com) (dhl.com) UPS says customers do not need to contact the company for shipments where UPS was the importer of record. It says Customs expects to take at least 60 to 90 days to deliver requested refunds to importers of record. (ups.com) FedEx says it began submitting Phase 1 claims on April 20 and is prioritizing them by liquidation date. DHL says it will automatically file eligible Phase 1 claims where it acted as importer of record and return the funds after Customs pays. (fedex.com) (dhl.com) The refund program does not erase other trade duties. CNBC reported that Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs remain in place, so many import bills will still include other levies even after IEEPA refunds begin moving. (cnbc.com) For importers, the practical change is simple but slow: the legal fight is largely over, and the administrative fight has started. Customs is paying back invalidated IEEPA duties in phases, and the money will move first through whoever was listed as the importer of record. (cbp.gov) (cnbc.com)