Importer IEEPA Refunds on Finally Liquidated Entries: The Sue-or-Wait Decision and the CAPE Phase 3 Path

Nithya Nagarajan, Partner | Husch Blackwell LLP

Nithya Nagarajan is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Husch Blackwell LLP, where she leads the firm’s Trade Remedy and Trade Policy practice. Drawing on prior roles at the U.S. Court of International Trade, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Commerce, she represents importers and exporters before U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Commerce, and the International Trade Commission. She also defends appeals in the U.S. Court of International Trade, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, NAFTA panels, and the World Trade Organization.

• Education & Credentials

Nithya served as Law Clerk to the Hon. Evan Wallach of the U.S. Court of International Trade from 2004 to 2006. She earned her J.D. cum laude from American University Washington College of Law, where she was on the International Law Review and served as Senior Associate for the First Year Moot Court Competition. She also holds an M.B.A. cum laude in Business and Finance and a B.A. in Political Science and Business, both from The George Washington University. She is admitted in the District of Columbia and Maryland and before the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

• Recognition & Leadership

Chambers USA ranks Nithya nationwide in International Trade: Trade Remedies & Trade Policy for 2025 and 2026, and the Chambers Global Guide recognizes her in the same area for 2026. The Legal 500 United States named her a Recommended lawyer for trade remedies and trade policy in 2025. She was named to the Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll with Honors in 2024 and 2025 and was a J.D. Supra Readers’ Choice Top Author in International Law in 2020 and 2024. During her government service, the Department of Commerce awarded her a Gold Medal (1997) and a Bronze Medal (1998) for her work on steel cases.

• Professional Involvement

Nithya serves as Vice Chair of the International Trade Committee of the Customs & International Trade Bar Association and as Co-Chair of the Imports & Supply Chain Committee of the Association of Women in International Trade (since 2022). She sat on the Law360 Editorial Advisory Board for International Trade from 2024 to 2026 and is a member of the American Institute for International Steel, the American Bar Association, the Washington International Trade Association, and the South Asian Bar Association. Her speaking includes the 22nd Judicial Conference of the U.S. Court of International Trade (2024), the ATCC Advanced Topics in Customs Compliance Conference (2026), and a March 2026 firm webinar on the U.S. Supreme Court and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

• Experience

Nithya served on the steering committee for the Section 301 litigation challenging the List 3 and List 4A tariffs on goods from China, and she has obtained Section 301 exclusions for U.S. importers. She identified $200 million in erroneous duty bills caused by a programming error in Commerce’s instructions to CBP and worked with Commerce to correct it, leaving the client paying less than $15,000 in duties. She has also guided importers through prior disclosures that ended with no penalty, a CBP RASA audit, and country-of-origin inquiries under the Colombia free trade agreement. In one matter she took Commerce’s inaction to the Court of International Trade and then secured a changed circumstances review that preserved a client’s zero deposit rate. Her trade remedy work includes a negative injury determination at the ITC on steel nails that spared importers potential duties, defense of exporters from China, India, Mexico, and Thailand, and negotiation of suspension agreements on behalf of Commerce.

SESSION 1 – Deciding Whether a Non-Plaintiff Importer Should File an IEEPA Refund Suit Now | Nithya Nagarajan | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session tests whether a non-plaintiff importer with finally liquidated IEEPA entries should file a § 1581(i) suit now. It covers § 2636(i) accrual, class fit, No. 26-1895 scenarios, and filing cost after AO 26-01, ending with a decision tree.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Turning an IEEPA Reliquidation Order into Paid Refunds Through CAPE Phase 3 | Nithya Nagarajan | 3:40pm – 4:10pm

This session takes an importer of record from a CIT reliquidation order to an ACH deposit through CAPE Phase 3. It covers order conditions, the July 30 line, broker or DDP importers of record, validation, ACH enrollment, protests, and offsets.