- Lawyers
- Practice AreasOur expertise
We are a team of more than 550 lawyers across the US, UK, Germany and Austria providing clients with senior, seasoned and business-savvy advice. Together our team has experience covering a wide span of corporate disciplines and industries. We provide legal, commercial and strategic advice for our clients, which include international enterprises through to investors, growth companies and unicorns. Our work covers some of the most interesting and topical areas, including ESG and FinTech.
Search by practice areaCorporate, ESG, and Outside General CounselCorporate, ESG, and Outside General Counsel OverviewCapital MarketsCorporate GovernanceCross Border Expansion & International TransactionsEmerging Companies and Venture CapitalESG and CSRM&A, Joint Ventures and Strategic TransactionsPrivate Equity and Hedge Fund FormationPublic Company Advisory / SEC ReportingRestructuring and Distressed M&ASEC and Securities Transactions & ComplianceShareholder Rights - OfficesLocations
gunnercooke has 15 offices globally across the UK, US, Germany and Austria. Our team works with clients across 123 countries, speaking 30 languages and are dual-qualified in 21 jurisdictions. Our expertise means we can offer large teams to carry out complex cross-border matters for major international clients.
- News & Insights
- About Us
- Join Us
- Contact Us
After more than 6 weeks of tariff refund activity, the way forward for tariff refunds lies in question now that the government is challenging the legal underpinnings of most refunds moving through the CAPE refund program. If the government succeeds, each importer whose entries are in final liquidation could have to file suit in federal court in order to receive a refund.
The government on June 2 appealed the April order behind CAPE to the Federal Circuit in V.O.S. Selections, and is expected to seek a stay of that order in Euro-Notions Florida. In doing so, the government has changed its tack from promising that refunds for final liquidation entries “are being evaluated for future phases of CAPE” to arguing that each importer with a final liquidation entry must file suit to recover funds.
Last week, the government unveiled a new argument that CBP lacks authority to issue refunds of entries in final liquidation, absent a court order. The DOJ is also challenging the existing April order to the extent it applies to nonparties, claiming the order lies in tension with the universal injunction ban in Trump v. CASA. The holding in CASA was based on a statute that does not apply in the Court of International Trade, which is authorized through separate jurisdictional legislation.
CIT Judge Richard Eaton wrote on June 3 that the government’s proposed stay “would discourage continuing progress” and pointed out that IEEPA refunds are settled law. What is happening now is essentially like settlement negotiations, he wrote. The DOJ has not explained its position that there continues to be a question involving the nonparty importers, even after the Supreme Court settled the legality of the collected IEEPA tariffs. Nor has it explained its change of heart from its assurance in AGS that it would not object to the court ordering reliquidation of entries featuring unlawful duties. Based on its position in that case, a three-judge panel held under the doctrine of judicial estoppel that the government is prevented from appealing an order such as the one that would later issue in April.
The government was originally ordered to issue refunds of all IEEPA duties on March 4, in the Atmus Filtration case. After that case was withdrawn, a similar order appeared in the Euro-Notions Florida case on April 17, although full compliance is stayed while CBP continually develops the CAPE system to issue the refunds. As of May 22, CBP declared that $85 billion in refunds had been accepted for processing. This would leave another $81 billion yet to be addressed.