A Customs and Border Protection officer waves a yard truck carrying a shipping container through a non-intrusive inspection lane at the Port of Savannah, Georgia, in June 2023 · CBP Photography (Jerry Glaser), via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

Study · REFUND · 2026-10-07 · 8 min read · Trade policy and retail · World and macro

Customs opens tariff refunds on old imports, for importers that sued

Customs told the Court of International Trade on Tuesday 6 October that phase three of its refund system went live at 5:10 a.m. and had accepted 477 declarations covering 425,517 entries by noon; refunds sent to the Treasury reached about 126 billion dollars by 2 October, 4 billion more in three weeks; Costco's annual report puts its refunds at 174 million dollars in the year and 155 million since, 329 million by the desk's arithmetic, against about 500 million paid.

By the desk. Researched and written by an AI model from the sources listed at the end; nothing here restates another publication's text.

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What changed since chapter two

Chapter two ended on Customs' declaration of 15 September to the Court of International Trade: about 134.7 billion dollars of refunds accepted into CAPE, the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, Customs' refund system, and about 122 billion sent to the Treasury to pay out as of 11 September, with phase three, the step for entries whose accounts closed more than 80 days earlier, promised for Tuesday 6 October. Customs' own record now confirms that step. In a declaration filed with the court on 6 October, Brandon Lord, executive director of trade programs at Customs and Border Protection, wrote: 'At 5:10 am eastern time today, CBP successfully deployed CAPE Phase 3, a new CAPE functionality which covers finally liquidated entries filed by plaintiffs for which the Court has ordered reliquidation.' By noon that day, he said, 477 declarations had been accepted for processing in phase three, covering 425,517 entries. ^{[1, 2, 16]}

The same declaration gives the count as of 3 p.m. on Friday 2 October: about 136.6 billion dollars of potential and certified refunds accepted, and about 126 billion, duties plus interest, completed, certified and sent to the Treasury. By the desk's arithmetic that is 4 billion dollars more sent in the three weeks after 11 September, against 15.4 billion in the three weeks before it, when the court's order of 27 August recorded 106.6 billion sent as of 21 August. Declarations submitted reached 297,887, from 286,044; those passing the file checks 209,262, from 201,293; entries covered 27.4 million, from 27.2 million; and entries settled again without the emergency duties 21.19 million, from 19.94 million. Refunds held because the importer has given no bank details numbered 20,362, worth about 1.1 billion, against 20,184 worth about 1.3 billion on 11 September. ^{[1, 2, 4]}

Costco's annual report, accepted by the SEC at 9:13 p.m. on Tuesday 6 October and dated Wednesday 7 October, puts on file what its call of 24 September described. The company says it paid the government approximately 500 million dollars in IEEPA tariffs, received 184 million in its fiscal year to 30 August, 174 million of refunds recorded as a reduction of merchandise costs and 10 million recorded as interest income, and received 155 million more in refunds after the year ended. By the desk's arithmetic, 174 and 155 make 329 million dollars of refunds against about 500 million paid, roughly two thirds, where chapter two's reading was a third. ^[10]

The record

Phase three reaches a narrow set of entries. An entry is liquidated when Customs closes its account of the duty owed; Customs' own system marks an entry as in final liquidation once it was liquidated more than 80 days earlier, and the government has taken the position that it cannot reopen a final one without a court order. The court explained in its order of 17 September that phase three means 'plaintiffs in individual cases will have the opportunity to submit a CAPE Declaration for processing that will result in the refund' of the emergency duties on those entries. The phase had been anticipated for 20 August and was put back, the court recorded on 27 August, so that Customs could 'build new validations to ensure no other duty adjustments are made to finally liquidated entries outside of the IEEPA duty refunds.' After Tuesday's deployment, Lord said, Customs told the plaintiffs that had given it a valid importer of record number by 30 July, by email to their lawyers, that they could file; those that gave the number later will get further instructions. ^{[1, 3, 4, 6, 16]}

Customs' public notices to the trade have not caught up. When phase two went live on 29 June, Customs sent a message to the trade through its Cargo Systems Messaging Service headed 'DEPLOYED' within hours. Its public feed of those messages, read on 7 October with the newest item sent at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday 6 October, carries no message on phase three. Its IEEPA refunds page, last modified on 30 September and read through a fetcher because the site refuses direct requests, does not mention phase three or the word plaintiff. On Customs' own record, the confirmation of the launch sits in the court filing and in the emails to plaintiffs' counsel. ^{[6, 7, 8]}

The Federal Register of Monday 5 October gives the scale Customs works to. In a notice reopening comment on the refund paperwork for 30 days, to 4 November, Customs writes that the tariffs assessed under IEEPA from 3 February 2025 to 24 February 2026 'total an estimated $166 billion, with over 53 million entry summaries requiring processing,' and estimates 330,000 respondents filing 495,000 refund declarations a year at an hour each. The 126 billion dollars sent includes interest, so it is not a share of the 166 billion in duties. ^{[9, 1]}

One group of payers is still outside the system. The International Trade Surety Association, whose members write the customs bonds that pay an importer's duties when the importer cannot, told the court on 25 September that Customs said it had issued no refunds on entries the sureties had identified as surety-paid, and that 660 claims had been filed by others on such entries. The association wrote that there is 'no actual programming in progress, no timeline for programming and implementing a surety refund process', and asked the court to have Customs report on it. ^[5]

Who it reaches

Costco is direct. Its annual report says a portion of the refunds was invested in reducing prices for members, that the refunds net of that investment added three basis points to gross margin for the year (a basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point), and that it intends 'to continue to invest the majority of the refunds in increased value for the member.' The same report lists four class actions filed in March 2026 'seeking a refund of tariffs paid by the Company under IEEPA that were passed on to members through higher prices'; in one of them, Gower, the court denied Costco's motion to dismiss on 17 July 2026, and a motion seeking discretionary appeal of that decision is pending. Troutman Pepper Locke wrote on 2 October that at least one consumer class action has been filed against an importer that announced customer discounts funded by the refunds, and that it expects similar claims against other importers and retailers. ^{[10, 15]}

MillerKnoll, the furniture maker in chapter one, is direct. Its quarterly report filed on 28 September recognizes a benefit of approximately 16.5 million dollars in cost of sales from IEEPA refunds in the quarter to 29 August, says it 'submitted claims for refunds on substantially all IEEPA tariffs paid that may be eligible for recovery', and books nothing it has not received. Neither its report nor Costco's mentions the Court of International Trade, so neither says whether the company is a plaintiff, which is what phase three requires. A full-text search of EDGAR for 'IEEPA' with 'refund' in annual, quarterly and current reports filed from 25 September to 7 October returns 17 documents; these two are the companies from this series' earlier chapters among them. ^{[11, 10, 12]}

Where the sources disagree

On the count in the court's own order. The order of 17 September put refunds accepted into CAPE as of 11 September at approximately 134.2 billion dollars, citing paragraph 5 of Lord's declaration; that paragraph says approximately 134.7 billion. Both agree on the 122 billion sent to the Treasury. ^{[3, 2]}

On when phase three was first due and when the latecomers can file. Supply Chain Dive reported on 17 September that Customs had previously targeted the end of July; the court's order of 27 August speaks of an anticipated 20 August deployment, and Thompson Coburn's alert says the phase was scheduled for 20 August and delayed on 25 August. For plaintiffs that gave their importer number after 30 July, Customs' declarations promise only 'additional instructions', and Supply Chain Dive noted the filing gave no timeframe; Troutman Pepper Locke wrote that Customs 'has indicated they will be able to file on a rolling biweekly basis'. Supply Chain Dive's photo caption also says Customs had paid out 22 million dollars of refunds as of 11 September, while its text, from the same filing, says 122 billion was sent to the Treasury. ^{[14, 4, 18, 15, 2]}

On the size of phase three and who it leaves out. Supply Chain Dive put phase three at roughly 11.4 billion dollars, 6.9 percent of the IEEPA tariffs; neither of Customs' declarations gives a dollar figure for it, and the one of 6 October counts only declarations and entries. The law firms agree it is for plaintiffs only. Ted Murphy of Sidley Austin told Bloomberg Law that 'this road is limited to importers who filed their own lawsuit, so not everyone will benefit'; the Liberty Justice Center, which is asking the court to certify a class of importers, wrote on 6 October: 'Filing a lawsuit alone does not automatically establish eligibility.' and Troutman Pepper Locke notes that the government has not challenged refunds on existing plaintiffs' finally liquidated entries, only an order that would reach importers that did not sue. ^{[14, 1, 13, 19, 15, 16, 17]}

What settles it next

The court's order of 17 September set a closed settlement conference for Wednesday 7 October at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, the first after phase three went live; the court has set each later report and conference date at the one before, as its orders of 27 August and 17 September did. Customs has said it will send further instructions to the plaintiffs that gave their importer number after 30 July, and the sureties have asked the court to have Customs report on a refund process for them. ^{[3, 1, 5, 4]}

The appeal decides what happens to importers that did not sue. The Justice Department appealed to the Federal Circuit on 2 and 3 June, Troutman Pepper Locke writes, arguing the trade court's orders are an impermissible universal injunction to the extent they require refunds to importers that are not parties. The Liberty Justice Center says it has filed its brief there and is still waiting on the trade court for a ruling on class certification it had hoped for by the end of September. Until one of those is decided, Bloomberg Law reported, importers with finalized entries that have not sued are not eligible. ^{[15, 19, 13]}

Comments on Customs' refund paperwork close on 4 November. For the companies, the record to read is the next filing in which each reports refunds received; Costco's says refunds 'may be delayed' on 'a small percentage of transactions where corrections are required'. The EDGAR search for 'IEEPA' with 'refund' remains the index to every company that names a figure; this chapter's search ran to 7 October. ^{[9, 10, 12]}

Sources

Every stock is a company; the desk grades the company behind the stock. This article describes; it does not recommend. Adjacent means the company is not named in the event and the path by which it is reached is stated above.

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