Drawback by tariff program: what you can recover in 2026

Drawback on Section 232 duties depends on the program. It is available on timber, lumber and their products, and on patented pharmaceuticals: "Drawback shall be available with respect to the duties imposed pursuant to this proclamation"^{⁠[20]⁠[22]}. It is limited to manufacturing drawback on auto and truck parts, some partner-country metals, drones and, from December 4, 2026, polysilicon. It is barred on primary steel, aluminum and copper, complete autos and semiconductors.^⁠[17]

• NoneManufacturing onlyMetals, since April 6, 2026. Annex I-A articles (all aluminum and steel articles and most copper articles, at 50%) get no drawback. Annex I-B articles (certain copper articles and aluminum and steel derivatives) and Annex III articles get manufacturing drawback only if three conditions hold. The article comes from a trade-agreement partner: the UK, EU, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Canada, or a country with a final reciprocal trade agreement. Its metal was smelted and cast, or melted and poured, in a partner country. And it is not under an AD/CVD order. Beyond that, "no other drawback claims shall be available"^⁠[18].
• Manufacturing onlyAuto and truck parts, since November 1, 2025: "only manufacturing drawback claims," "and no other drawback"^⁠[19].
• Manufacturing onlyDrones and polysilicon: manufacturing drawback only, for partner-country articles not under an AD/CVD order. Drones need at least 85% partner content; polysilicon content must come entirely from a partner country.^{⁠[23]⁠[24]}
• Overlaps: the forced-labor Section 301 duties exempt goods under Section 232,^⁠[13] and the Section 122 surcharge "shall not apply in addition to tariffs imposed under section 232"^⁠[14].

Before the duties ended, the split mattered: the fentanyl and border duties were never drawback-eligible, and the reciprocal duties were.

The 2025 fentanyl and border orders for Canada, Mexico and China each said: "No drawback shall be available with respect to the duties imposed"^⁠[26]. For the reciprocal duties, CBP said: "Drawback is available with respect to the additional duties imposed pursuant to this Executive Order" (CSMS #64680374, April 8, 2025)^⁠[28]. Executive Order 14389, signed February 20, 2026, the day the Supreme Court held in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs, ended both.^{⁠[27]⁠[30]}

Most IEEPA refunds go through CAPE, which returns 100% of the IEEPA duty plus interest and excludes entries already under a drawback claim.^⁠[31]

In the demonstration file (synthetic data), one April 2025 entry from China carried both: a 20% fentanyl duty of $19,360.00, which drawback could never return, and a 125% reciprocal duty of $121,000.00, which it could. Both now go to CAPE.^⁠[32]

The 10% surcharge applied to entries from February 24 to July 24, 2026, and CBP's guidance (CSMS #67844987, February 23, 2026) says: "Drawback is available with respect to the additional duties imposed"^⁠[3].

Proclamation 11012 imposed it under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 for 150 days, and it never applied on top of Section 232 duty.^⁠[14] It is not IEEPA duty, so CAPE does not refund it. Entries from that window stay inside the five-year limit until February to July 2031.^⁠[5]

Section 301 duties on China remain drawback-eligible,^⁠[10] and on August 18, 2026, CBP confirmed that the 2026 duties on Brazil (9903.05.01) and the forced-labor duties (9903.05.20 to 9903.05.84) "are drawback eligible"^⁠[2].

The August 12 to 18 block. On August 12, 2026, CBP deployed ACE validations "to disallow drawback" for those numbers, announced on August 14 in CSMS #69535943.^⁠[33] On August 18, CBP said the validations "have been corrected in production to allow drawback for these HTSUS classifications"^⁠[2]. If ACE rejected a claim line in that week, ask your broker whether it was sent again; CBP's correction does not say how rejected claims are handled.

The 2026 actions. The forced-labor duties of 10% or 12.5% on goods from 60 economies took effect July 24, 2026, and goods under Section 232 are exempt.^⁠[13] The 25% Brazil duty, imposed by a July 15, 2026 memorandum, applies to goods entered from July 22, 2026.^{⁠[34]⁠[12]} For China, the latest conforming exclusion amendments came September 22, 2026 (CSMS #69990649).^⁠[11]

That sentence cites headings 9903.04.12 to 9903.04.14, apparently a typo for the 9903.03.12 to 9903.03.14 headings the same bulletin sets for the duty. The 50% duty covers certain Canadian alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motor vehicles and has applied since August 22, 2026.^⁠[4]

Proclaimed in July 2026 under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, the duties started three days later than first set. Their scope changed on September 15, and an import ban on some products followed on September 29. USMCA origin gives no exemption, and none of the proclamations mentions drawback.^{⁠[15]⁠[4]} For goods sent back to Canada or Mexico, USMCA can cap drawback at the lesser of the U.S. duty or the duty paid there; goods exported in the same condition get full drawback.^{⁠[5]⁠[35]}

"Drawback is not allowable on antidumping and countervailing duties which were imposed on any merchandise entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption"^⁠[1]. The statute says the same at 19 U.S.C. 1677h.^⁠[9] The 2026 Section 232 partner rules also exclude articles under AD/CVD orders.^⁠[18]

The fee is apportioned to each entry line by its share of the entry's value, and 99% of the share on exported goods is refundable.^⁠[7] From October 1, 2026, the formal-entry fee runs from $34.58 to $670.86, at an unchanged 0.3464% of value; older entries keep their own year's limits.^⁠[8]