On March 27th, the Court of International Trade’s Judge Eaton revised his order to include “any liquidated entries for which liquidation is final shall be reliquidated without regard to the IEEPA duties.” This does mean that even the entries past the 180-day protest window should now be included. However, ST&R states they are unsure whether the judiciary has the authority to do so.
Although we suggest holding off, especially with this news, we are happy to file protests on your behalf anyway. Just bear in mind, because there is no guidance from the Administration and the CIT has suspended the order to provide IEEPA refunds because of CBP’s continued compliance, your protest is likely to be DENIED. The next step would likely be litigation UNLESS the CIT does possess the authority to make CBP reliquidate for finally liquidated entries. Continue to monitor the liquidated entries and consult with your legal counsel about your best course of action.
Customs continues to maintain that importers and brokers have to provide CBP a bank account for direct deposits, and to make sure you sign up for an ACE portal account, if you haven’t done so already. According to their latest CSMS #68179006, CBP claims it has rejected over 12,000 certified refunds because the banking information has not been provided. Be sure to follow the instructions to set up the ACH refund tab once you do have your ACE portal account set up. Please note this is a separate process even if you already have a Payer Unit Number with Customs.
Since final details and guidance from Customs about the actual process has yet to be released, we have not determined the fee schedule for IEEPA Refund filing at this time.
Wasatch will continue to monitor the progress through available outlets and update importers as more details are disclosed. When the time comes to begin filing claims, Wasatch has the ability to run detailed reports in order to verify expected refund amounts.