3/24/26 — Early Liquidation Risk Across Entry Types
While most online discussions of IEEPA claims envision a roughly 314-day liquidation period typical of Type 01 consumption entries.
It’s important to however to recognize that there are 49 usable entry types and that there is operational variance as to liquidation cycles for each. CBP runs liquidation cycles on shorter timelines for some entry types simply because those are operationally cleaner and see fewer adjustments. These include as examples:
Type 11 (Informal Entries): May liquidate within 30 days.
Type 31 (Warehouse Withdrawals): Commonly finalize within 60–180 days of withdrawal.
Type 06 (FTZ Consumption Entries): Usually liquidate about 90–210 days after withdrawal.
That compressed timing collapsed the protest window for some of those entries before legal challenges to the tariffs were addressed by the Supreme Court (on February 20, 2026).
For example, a warehouse withdrawal may have occurred on March 1, 2025 with a corresponding liquidation on May 30, 2025, roughly 90 days later. The protest period would have expired on November 26, 2025. Since the Court’s ruling came after that date, the importer’s entry would have already reached final liquidation under 19 U.S.C. § 1514, with CBP’s reliquidation authority under § 1501 long expired. However, during this period, the issue was still considered “non-protestible” as a Constitutional challenge to the tariffs (i.e., an issue that Customs at the time was unable to approve via an adminstrative protest).
Importers in this position are now evaluating alternative legal theories, including:
Bringing litigation under the residual jurisdiction clause of the Court (28 U.S.C. § 1581(i)) as a litigation claim (these are time sensitive claims);
Equitable tolling, arguing the protest clock should begin once the IEEA tariff’s are legally invalidated; and
Challenges to liquidation finality, potentially asserting that liquidation based on an unlawful tariff may lack binding effect.
Each approach depends on legal theories (rather that clear settled procedure) and collectively represent an emerging next phase of IEEPA refund recovery.
In sum, Early liquidation is routine for many types of entries including informal entries, warehouse entries, and FTZ entries; thus, Importers should:
Review entry data to identify which transactions may have liquidated early.
Consider protective protests, even if protestability and/or timeliness are uncertain issues.
Consult counsel early to time-sensitive litigation claims under § 1581(i).