On December 15, 2025, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) issued an important decision that provides reassurance to importers waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The CIT clarified that it has the authority to order U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to reliquidate affected entries and refund the duties that were improperly collected. Second, the CIT confirmed that it will retain jurisdiction over refund claims for the full two-year statute of limitations applicable under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i).
Importers do not need to rush to file immediate legal challenges solely to preserve their refund rights. Instead, they may wait for the Supreme Court’s decision—expected within the next several months—before taking further action, without risking the loss of their ability to seek refunds.
Actually, in November and December 2025, many importers filed precautionary lawsuits at the CIT. These lawsuits were intended to protect their rights to refunds in case the Supreme Court invalidated the IEEPA tariffs. Importers were concerned because their entries were beginning to liquidate, which normally triggers strict deadlines for challenging customs duties.
Liquidation is the point at which CBP finalizes the amount of duty owed on an import. After an entry is filed, CBP generally keeps it open for approximately 314 days while it reviews documentation and conducts any necessary inspections. Once liquidation occurs, the duty rate becomes final. To challenge a liquidation, an importer must file a protest with CBP within 180 days. If CBP denies the protest, the importer then has another 180 days to appeal to the CIT.
To avoid these deadlines, importers asked the CIT to suspend liquidation of their entries. In its December 15 decision, the CIT ruled that suspending liquidation was unnecessary. The court explained that even if entries liquidate before the Supreme Court rules, it still has the authority to order reliquidation and refunds later if the tariffs are found unlawful.
In AGS Company Automotive Solutions v. United States, CIT Slip Op. 25-154, the CIT held that importers are not required to protest IEEPA tariff liquidations under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(a). Instead, they may challenge the tariffs directly in the CIT under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i). Liquidations occurring before the Supreme Court’s decision are not truly final for these purposes, because the CIT retains the power to undo them through reliquidation.
So, if the Supreme Court rules that the IEEPA tariffs are unlawful and orders refunds, one of two outcomes is likely. CBP may establish an administrative refund process on its own, or importers may need to file lawsuits to recover the duties they paid. In either case, the statute of limitations for seeking refunds is two years from the date of the challenged government action. To be conservative, that date is the publication of the tariffs themselves. The IEEPA tariffs imposed on imports from China, as well as those on imports from Mexico and Canada, were published on February 7, 2025. The reciprocal IEEPA tariffs affecting all other countries were published on April 7, 2025.