In the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling that the Trump IEEPA tariffs are unlawful, importers face a clear reality: the duty landscape will remain active, litigated, and evolving. As duties continue to be assessed, challenged, and recalculated, importers must be proactive in protecting their refund rights.
Filing Suit at the CIT for IEEPA Tariffs
Because the Supreme Court has upheld the Federal Circuit's decision, the case is remanded to the Court of International Trade (CIT). This remand was initially to determine whether it can issue a nationwide injunction to prevent the collection of future IEEPA tariffs, but this has been rendered moot as there is now a CBP CSMS message terminating the collection of the IEEPA tariffs. The secondary issue is whether and how, refunds will be paid.
The President has made it clear that the United States intends to fight the refund process. We are confident that importers who have filed suit in the CIT will be eligible to receive refunds for the IEEPA Tariffs they paid. However, the CIT will need to provide specific instructions for obtaining an order issuing refunds. It is far less clear whether, and how, refunds will be issued for those that do not go to Court.
We encourage all importers impacted by the IEEPA tariffs to file a court challenge in the CIT. We believe that doing so preserves the right to receive refunds for IEEPA tariffs paid without having to pursue a long additional post-decision process.
Legal Challenge to Section 122
On February 20, 2026, President Trump announced he would replace the IEEPA tariffs with a tariff based on Section 122. This was initially announced at 10% and took effect on February 24th. The President has announced that he is increasing it to the lawful maximum of 15%, but the effective date has not yet been set. This tariff would remain in effect for up to 150 days. This tariff appears to be unlawful and we believe that a challenge should be filed as soon as ripe (i.e. an import must be made paying this duty). This lawsuit would have two potential impacts:
- An injunction preventing the collection of this duty pending outcome of the lawsuit. This would appear unlikely as the tariff can only remain in place for 150 days. However, as this tariff has little legal support (in fact, the Department of Justice has previously stated that it would not apply), this is not completely precluded.
- Recovery of the monies collected. At this time the President has made it clear that he will not issue refunds absent a successful lawsuit by the specific importer in the case of the IEEPA duties, and would likely take the same approach with the 122 duties.
We encourage all importers impacted by the Section 122 tariffs to file a court challenge in the CIT.
Our office will continue to closely monitor to keep you informed.
If you have any questions regarding any other import or export-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact our office at info@diaztradelaw.com
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
