This update covers three key developments this week: (1) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) filed its latest status update in Euro-Notions on April 14, 2025; (2) Judge Eaton thereafter issued another order; and (3) next steps / recommendations for importers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) issued guidance on how importers need to report and classify goods subject to the revised steel, aluminum, and copper tariffs announced by the Trump Administration on April 2, 2026. We encourage importers to review the list of HTS number affected by the metal tariffs to ensure compliance with the below reporting requirements.
On March 31, 2026, Brandon Lord, the Executive Director of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP” or “Customs”) Trade Programs Directorate, Office of Trade, filed a status update (the “Declaration”) with the Court of International Trade (“CIT”) further outlining Customs’ progress in developing the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) functionality within ACE. CAPE has four integrated components: Claim Portal, Mass Processing, Review and Liquidation/Reliquidation, and Refund.
On March 19, 2026, Brandon Lord, the Executive Director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, filed a status update with the U.S. Court of International Trade (“CIT”) outlining CBP’s progress in developing a new Automated Commercial Environment (“ACE”) functionality intended to support refunds of tariffs that were imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”).
On March 6, 2026, Brandon Lord, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (“CBP”) Executive Director for Trade Programs, filed a declaration with the U.S. Court of International Trade (“CIT”) in the ongoing Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States case and following up on an order issued by Judge Richard Eaton of the CIT issued earlier this
Effective February 6, 2026, Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) will issue refunds electronically via Automated Clearing House (“ACH”). This rule change will affect all refunds, subject to limited exceptions (e.g., certain emergency payments, transactions involving national security or law enforcement concerns, transactions involving individuals who do not have access to banking services or electronic payment systems, etc.). FR Document 2025-24171. Also this rule will apply to all importers, brokers, filers, sureties, service providers, facility operators, foreign trade zone operators, and carriers as well as designated third parties listed on a CBP Form 4811. In short, absent a waiver, after February 5, 2026 CBP will not issue refunds by check.
CBP announced on October 6, 2025, that it will not issue refunds or any payments related to drawback claims, post-summary corrections and protests during the government shutdown which began on October 1, 2025.
In March 2025, in a similar blog post to this one, Nithya Nagarajan and Robert Romashko forecasted that False Claims Act (“FCA”) enforcement would increase under the current tariff-focused trade policy regime. Sure enough, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) recently announced two FCA resolutions involving allegations of failure to pay customs duties and evasion of antidumping and countervailing duties.
The first seven weeks of the second Trump Administration has revealed that tariffs are going to be a primary tool in the administration’s trade arsenal to address both domestic and foreign trade policy goals. What is critical to understand is that tariffs are only a viable tool if U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) can