On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that IEEPA tariffs were unconstitutional. On that same day, thousands of containers were on the water between China and U.S. ports — goods that had been loaded onto vessels before the ruling, shipped under the assumption that IEEPA tariffs would apply upon arrival, and priced accordingly.
What happened to those goods when they arrived? Were they assessed IEEPA tariffs? If so, are those duties refundable? And what about goods that arrived after the ruling but before the CIT’s March 4 order formally directed CBP to stop collecting?
The “goods in transit” window — roughly February 20 through early March 2026 — created a unique cohort of imports that faced inconsistent treatment at the border. Some were assessed IEEPA duties; some weren’t. The treatment depended on the specific port, the CBP officer processing the entry, and whether the broker filed the entry before or after CBP issued internal guidance.
This guide covers every transit-timing scenario and maps each to the appropriate recovery path.
The Key Dates
Understanding the goods-in-transit question requires knowing exactly when different events happened:
| Date | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| February 20, 2026 | Supreme Court ruling issued | IEEPA tariffs declared unconstitutional |
| February 20-24, 2026 | CBP internal review period | No formal guidance issued; ports operated inconsistently |
| February 24, 2026 | CBP Federal Register Notice | Formally suspended IEEPA tariff collection |
| March 4, 2026 | CIT order | Directed CBP to process refunds on all IEEPA duties collected |
| Mid-April 2026 (projected) | CAPE system launch | Automated refund processing begins |
The critical gap is February 20-24 — four days between the ruling and CBP’s formal action. During that period, treatment was inconsistent.
Scenario 1: Entry Filed Before February 20 (Pre-Ruling)
If your goods arrived at a U.S. port and the customs entry was filed before February 20, 2026, the entry was processed under the IEEPA tariff regime. IEEPA duties were assessed. This is the standard case.
Recovery: These entries are eligible for refund through the normal recovery paths — Post-Summary Correction if unliquidated, protest if liquidated within the 180-day window, or CIT litigation if outside the window.
No transit timing issue. The goods cleared customs before the ruling. The refund is based on the unconstitutionality of the tariff, not on the timing of the entry.
Scenario 2: Entry Filed February 20-24 (Ruling Issued, No CBP Guidance)
This is the gray zone. The Supreme Court had ruled IEEPA tariffs unconstitutional, but CBP hadn’t yet issued formal guidance to its field offices. Some ports continued assessing IEEPA duties on entries filed during this window; others began waiving them.
If IEEPA Duties Were Assessed
You paid duties that were already ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The refund is the same as any other IEEPA claim — file through the standard recovery paths.
Argument for expedited processing: These entries have a particularly strong case for priority treatment because the duties were collected after the tariff was declared unconstitutional. The CIT’s March 4 order explicitly covers duties collected during this period. Some importers are arguing for these entries to be processed first in the CAPE queue.
If IEEPA Duties Were Not Assessed
If your broker was proactive and filed the entry without IEEPA tariff lines (citing the ruling), or if the CBP officer at your port declined to assess IEEPA duties, you have no duties to refund. Your entry was processed correctly.
Check your entry summary. Don’t assume. Pull the CF 7501 for any entries filed between February 20-24 and verify whether IEEPA tariff lines (9903.01 or 9903.02) appear. Some brokers filed entries with IEEPA lines “to be safe” even after the ruling, planning to file PSCs later.
Scenario 3: Entry Filed February 24 - March 4 (CBP Suspended, CIT Not Yet Ordered)
After February 24, CBP formally suspended IEEPA tariff collection. Entries filed after this date should not include IEEPA duty lines.
If they were included: This is a broker error. Your broker filed the entry with IEEPA tariff codes after CBP suspended collection. The entry needs to be corrected through a Post-Summary Correction (if unliquidated) regardless of the broader IEEPA refund process.
If they weren’t included: Correct treatment. No refund needed for these entries.
Scenario 4: Goods on the Water on February 20, Arriving After February 24
This is the most common goods-in-transit scenario. Your container was loaded in Shanghai in early February, was on the water when the ruling came down, and arrived at Long Beach or Savannah in late February or early March.
Because the entry was filed after CBP suspended IEEPA collection (February 24), the entry should not have been assessed IEEPA duties. If it was assessed:
Recovery: Same as Scenario 3. File a PSC to correct the entry. This is a cleaner case than entries filed during the February 20-24 gap because CBP had already formally suspended collection.
If duties were not assessed: No action needed for these entries. But check whether you have other entries from the IEEPA period (February 4, 2025 through February 20, 2026) that do need to be filed for recovery. The goods-in-transit entries are just one piece of your overall IEEPA portfolio.
Scenario 5: Goods Loaded Before the Ruling, Diverted During Transit
Some importers reacted to the IEEPA tariffs by diverting goods that were already in transit — sending containers to Canada, Mexico, or bonded warehouses rather than clearing them through U.S. customs with the IEEPA surcharge. If your goods were diverted during transit:
Goods sent to Canada/Mexico for re-export to U.S.: If the goods eventually entered the U.S. after February 24, they should not have been assessed IEEPA duties (assuming they entered after CBP suspended collection). No refund needed.
Goods sent to a bonded warehouse: If goods entered a bonded warehouse under a warehouse entry, duties weren’t assessed at entry. If they were subsequently withdrawn for consumption during the IEEPA period, IEEPA duties would have been assessed at withdrawal and are refundable. If they’re still in the warehouse, no duties to refund.
Goods sent to an FTZ: Similar to bonded warehouse — duties aren’t assessed until withdrawal for consumption. Check the FTZ guide for the specific implications.
The Impact on Your Customs Broker’s Performance
The goods-in-transit period was a stress test for customs brokers. Some performed well — they immediately adjusted their filing systems to exclude IEEPA tariff codes after the ruling. Others continued filing entries with IEEPA codes for days or weeks after the ruling, creating unnecessary refund claims that now need to be processed.
If you had entries filed after February 20 that included IEEPA duties, ask your broker why. There may be valid reasons (conservative approach, waiting for formal CBP guidance) or there may be process failures. Either way, those entries need to be corrected.
The quality of your broker’s response to the ruling is one indicator of their overall competence. If they were slow to adapt, it’s worth auditing their broader IEEPA work to ensure they’re handling your recovery filings correctly.
Financial Planning for Transit-Period Entries
The transit-period entries represent a small subset of most importers’ total IEEPA exposure — typically 2-4 weeks of imports at most. But they can be disproportionately important for financial planning because:
They may already be corrected. If your broker filed PSCs on post-ruling entries immediately, those corrections may already be processing. Check with your broker.
They’re likely unliquidated. Entries filed in February 2026 won’t liquidate until approximately December 2026 (314-day cycle). This means they’re all eligible for PSC — the fastest and simplest recovery path.
They’re recent enough that documentation is fresh. Unlike entries from early 2025, transit-period entries have documentation that’s only weeks old. No risk of missing invoices or stale records.
Quantifying Your Transit-Period Exposure
To calculate your goods-in-transit IEEPA exposure:
Step 1: Pull your ES-003 report for entries filed between February 15-28, 2026.
Step 2: Identify entries with IEEPA tariff codes (9903.01 or 9903.02).
Step 3: Separate entries filed before February 20 (pre-ruling) from entries filed February 20-24 (gray zone) and after February 24 (should not have IEEPA codes).
Step 4: For entries after February 24 with IEEPA codes, confirm with your broker whether PSCs have already been filed.
| Entry Date | IEEPA Assessed? | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Before Feb 20 | Yes | Standard IEEPA recovery |
| Feb 20-24 | Varies by port | If assessed: standard recovery (argue for priority) |
| After Feb 24 | Should be no | If assessed: PSC to correct broker error |
Scenario 6: Pre-Paid Duties on Goods Not Yet Shipped
Some importers pre-paid estimated duties through their customs bond or through advance payment arrangements with their broker. If you pre-paid IEEPA duties on goods that had not yet been shipped (or had not yet arrived) as of February 20, these payments are refundable — but through a different mechanism than the standard PSC or protest path.
Pre-paid duties that were never formally applied to an entry summary can be recovered through a refund request to your broker, who will coordinate with CBP to return the advance payment. If the pre-payment was applied to an entry that was subsequently filed during the February 20-24 gap period, it falls under Scenario 2 above.
Action: Check with your broker whether any advance duty payments remain unapplied. These can be recovered directly without going through the CAPE system.
The Financial Impact of Transit-Period Inconsistency
The inconsistent treatment during the February 20-24 gap created an uneven playing field. Importers whose goods cleared at ports that continued assessing IEEPA duties were disadvantaged compared to importers whose goods cleared at ports that immediately stopped. Both groups will eventually receive the same treatment (refunds for those who paid), but the timing and administrative burden differ.
For importers who were assessed IEEPA duties during the gap period, the refund will come through the standard recovery paths. But there’s an argument — supported by several trade law firms — that gap-period entries should receive expedited processing because the duties were collected after the Supreme Court had already declared them unconstitutional. This is distinct from entries filed before February 20, where the duties were collected under a regime that was still (at the time) legally operative.
If your gap-period entries represent a significant amount, discuss with your broker or trade attorney whether to argue for priority processing when CAPE launches. The CAPE queue position may be influenced by the strength of the legal argument, and gap-period entries have the strongest case for expedited treatment.
Quantifying the Gap-Period Impact
To understand your specific exposure during the February 20-24 gap:
| Data Point | How to Find It |
|---|---|
| Entries filed Feb 20-24 | Filter your ES-003 report by entry date |
| IEEPA duties on gap-period entries | Sum the 9903.01/9903.02 lines on those entries |
| Percentage of total IEEPA exposure | Divide gap-period duties by total IEEPA duties |
| Liquidation status | Check ACE — these entries are almost certainly unliquidated |
For most importers, gap-period entries represent a small fraction of total IEEPA exposure (typically 1-3%). But for high-volume importers who had multiple containers clearing during those four days, the amount can be substantial.
Connecting Transit Entries to Your Broader Recovery
Don’t treat goods-in-transit entries in isolation. They’re part of your total IEEPA portfolio that spans the entire tariff period — February 4, 2025, through February 24, 2026. Your Impact Assessment should include every IEEPA-affected entry, including the transit-period ones.
The transit entries are typically among the easiest to recover because they’re recent, well-documented, and unliquidated. But they’re a small fraction of your total exposure. If you have 12 months of IEEPA imports, the transit entries might represent 5% of your total claim. Make sure the other 95% is getting the same attention.
The overall recovery process — pull data, assess the portfolio, prioritize deadline-sensitive entries, file PSCs and protests, and monitor through CAPE — applies across your entire entry history. The complete guide to IEEPA tariff refunds provides the end-to-end framework.
Special Case: Pre-Paid Freight With Duty-Inclusive Pricing
Some importers use freight forwarders that quote all-inclusive pricing — a single per-container or per-shipment rate that includes freight, customs brokerage, and duties. Under this model, you may not have visibility into the duty component of each entry.
If you were using all-inclusive freight pricing during the IEEPA period, the IEEPA duties were buried in your freight invoice. Your forwarder collected them from you and remitted them to CBP, but you may never have seen a separate line item for “IEEPA duty.”
Action required: Contact your forwarder and request a breakdown of the duty component of each shipment during the IEEPA period. Specifically, ask for the duty amount attributable to HTS codes 9903.01 and 9903.02. This information exists in the customs broker’s records (even if it wasn’t itemized on your freight invoice) and is necessary for filing your refund claim.
Some forwarders are proactively reaching out to clients who used all-inclusive pricing to identify IEEPA refund opportunities. Others are waiting for clients to ask. Don’t wait to be contacted — the 180-day protest deadline applies regardless of your pricing model with the forwarder.
What About Goods in Transit During a Future Tariff Change?
The IEEPA goods-in-transit experience offers lessons for any future tariff change — whether it’s a new tariff being imposed or an existing tariff being eliminated:
Lesson 1: Entry date controls. Duties are assessed based on the date the entry is filed, not the date goods were loaded, shipped, or arrived. This is a fundamental customs principle that doesn’t change.
Lesson 2: CBP guidance lags legal changes. There’s always a gap between a legal event (court ruling, executive order, legislation) and CBP’s operational implementation. During that gap, treatment is inconsistent.
Lesson 3: Broker responsiveness matters. The brokers who adapted fastest to the IEEPA ruling saved their clients from unnecessary duty assessments and refund filings. Choose brokers who monitor legal developments in real time.
Lesson 4: Document the timeline. For any entries filed during a transitional period, keep records of the timeline — when goods were loaded, when they arrived, when the entry was filed, and what guidance was in effect at the time. This documentation supports your position if any entry is questioned.
Get your free Impact Assessment →
Whether your goods were in transit on ruling day or had cleared customs months earlier, the refund process starts the same way — understanding your full IEEPA exposure and mapping every entry to a recovery path. Transit-period entries may be a small piece of your portfolio, but they’re the easiest to recover. Start with the full picture — your Impact Assessment covers every entry from the first day of IEEPA through the last.
