In this week’s Roar: The impact of the Iranian attacks, insurance guarantees for ships, rising energy costs in Europe, backlogs and reduced capacity for air cargo, and importers fighting to get tariff costs back. Like the geopolitics at play, the supply chain impacts of the current Middle East conflict are complex and widespread. With almost no notice, shippers began facing longer lead times, reduced supply availability, route instability, rising transportation and energy costs, and broader uncertainty. To minimize risk from the new disruptions,...

Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection assured the court that an automated refund tool could be ready within 45 days. In what may be the single largest refund directive in the history of U.S. customs law, Judge Richard K. Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade on March 4 ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to liquidate and reliquidate every entry subject to duties imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act—"without regard to the IEEPA duties." In...

Highlights The Court of International Trade (CIT) has ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to begin automatically refunding International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) duties. The order applies broadly to all importers that paid IEEPA duties, but companies must confirm whether their entries are unliquidated, liquidated but not final, or fully final. Key uncertainty remains around what qualifies as “not final” liquidation and how this will impact refunds for importations made, particularly in early 2025. The ruling may...