Duty drawback on past entries: which lines qualify, the lesser-of rule and which Chapter 99 duties come back

What is drawback, and what is it not?

Drawback is a refund of duty that was correctly paid. It applies when imported goods, or goods made from them, leave the US market: exported, or destroyed under CBP supervision. The statute, 19 U.S.C. 1313, sets out several kinds of drawback; the regulations are in 19 CFR Part 190. The usual refund is 99 percent of the duties, taxes and fees paid on the imported merchandise, and CBP keeps 1 percent (19 CFR 190.51(b)).

It is not a correction. A line declared at the wrong rate is fixed by a post-summary correction or a protest, routes compared on how to recover overpaid import duty. Drawback starts from the duty that was right on the entry date and asks a different question: did those goods, or substitutes for them, leave?

That question is answered from data most importers already hold. The import side is the entry summary line: what was imported, when, how many units, and every duty paid on it, including each Chapter 99 heading. The export side is the export record. This page works from the import side: which lines in a past entry export can carry drawback, how much, and for how long.

Which Chapter 99 duties come back?

19 CFR 190.3(a) makes drawback available on duties, taxes and fees imposed on entry, including ordinary customs duties, merchandise processing fees and harbor maintenance taxes. Two exclusions come from the statute: antidumping and countervailing duties are never refunded as drawback (19 U.S.C. 1677h; 190.3(b)), and agricultural goods paid at an over-quota tariff-rate quota rate qualify only for unused direct identification drawback (1313(w)).

Everything else in Chapter 99 depends on the instrument that imposed it. Many proclamations and orders say in a numbered clause whether drawback is available, so the tagging step comes down to three outcomes.

CBP's drawback trade remedies FAQ, last modified March 7, 2025, still says goods subject to Section 232 are ineligible for refund of the 232 duties, citing the 2018 proclamations. The later proclamations above say otherwise for their own duties, and the proclamation that imposed the duty is the one that governs. For IEEPA duties more broadly, refunds run through CBP's CAPE process, covered on IEEPA refunds: which entries qualify. CBP's IEEPA refund guidance encourages importers to put drawback-eligible entries on a CAPE Declaration before filing a drawback claim on them, and says the entry must be in liquidation or reliquidation status before it goes on the drawback claim. Why your entry shows the wrong duty stack explains how these headings combine on one line.

Which kinds of drawback can a past entry line support?

Three details decide whether a substitution claim works:

• The 8-digit match, and the "Other" trap. For unused merchandise substitution, an 8-digit match is not enough when the 8-digit description begins with "Other". Then both goods must share the same 10-digit statistical number, and that 10-digit description must not begin with "Other" either (1313(j)(5)). The first 8 digits of the Schedule B number on the export can be used to test the match (1313(j)(6)). Because the match is read from the classification on each import line, a classification audit of the import side comes first: a line that was misclassified at entry and never corrected carries its wrong number into the claim.
• Retail returns. For goods sold at retail and returned, the claim may designate an import entry made within one year before the export or destruction, with the same 8-digit classification and the same product identifier such as a part number or SKU (1313(c)(2)).
• Manufacturing rulings. Manufacturing claims run under a general manufacturing drawback ruling, published in Appendix A to Part 190 and adopted by a letter of notification filed before or with the first claim, or under a specific ruling where the operation varies from the general one (19 CFR 190.7 and 190.8). The product and the inputs have to fit the ruling.

For unused and rejected merchandise, a Notice of Intent to Export, Destroy, or Return Merchandise for Purposes of Drawback (CBP Form 7553) must be filed at least 5 working days before the export, or before rejected goods are returned to CBP custody, unless CBP has granted a waiver of prior notice, so CBP can examine the goods (19 CFR 190.35 and 190.42). For a destruction the notice is due at least 7 working days ahead (190.71). Check this first for past exports: an unused export shipped without a notice, and without a waiver in place, is hard to bring into a claim. Rejected and damaged goods are covered in more depth, alongside the other routes for them, on duty on damaged or short-shipped goods.

Exports to Canada and Mexico carry one more limit. For most drawback on goods exported to a USMCA country, the refund is capped at the lower of the US duty paid and the duty paid on the good when it entered Canada or Mexico (19 CFR 182.44), so a duty-free entry there can leave nothing to claim. Goods exported in the same condition under 1313(j)(1), and goods originating in Canada or Mexico under the USMCA rules of origin, are exempt from that cap (182.45). Unused merchandise substitution is not available at all for exports to a USMCA country, apart from the goods the statute lists (1313(j)(4)).

How long does each entry stay claimable?

Each designated import has its own clock: the complete claim must be filed no later than five years after the date the merchandise was imported (1313(r)(1); 19 CFR 190.51(e)). Complete means everything in 190.51(a): the drawback entry, any required notices, the import entry data and the evidence of export or destruction, all transmitted through a CBP-authorized system. A claim not completed within the five years is abandoned, and CBP grants no extension unless it caused the late filing, or a presidentially declared major disaster prevented it and the extension is requested within a year (190.51(e)(2)).

In an entry export, the date that matters is the import date (block 11 on the 7501), not the entry date (block 7). They can differ by days or weeks; Form 7501 field by field explains both. Sort the eligible lines by import date, and the oldest ones are the ones about to expire. A claim that designates many imports is limited by the oldest one on it. How long you have to fix a past entry sets drawback beside the other clocks that run on the same entries.

How is the amount worked out on one line?

The statute lets CBP require the claim to be based on the average per-unit duties, taxes and fees on the entry summary line (1313(l)(2)), and the regulations require per unit averaging for substitution claims: the eligible duty on a line is divided equally across all its units (19 CFR 190.2; 190.51(b)(1)(ii)). The merchandise processing fee is first apportioned to each line by its share of the entry's value, then per unit (190.51(b)(2)).

An illustrative entry, with invented rates and values. The import date is September 8, 2026, so the five-year clock runs to September 8, 2031.

Line 001: 2,000 plastic housings, entered value $100,000 ($50 a unit). Duties: a general rate of 3.4% ($3,400) and a Section 301 forced-labor duty under one of headings 9903.05.20 to 9903.05.84, taken here as 12.5% ($12,500); the actual rate depends on the country of origin. Eligible duty: $15,900, or $7.95 a unit. (The fee is left out to keep the example short.)

Line 002: steel brackets from a country that is not a Trade Agreement Partner under Proclamation 11021, with a general duty and a Section 232 duty. Only the general duty is eligible; the Section 232 duty is not, under clause 14, whatever kind of drawback is claimed.

Three ways line 001 can come back:

1. Unused, direct identification. 600 of the same housings are re-exported unused in March 2027. Refund: 600 × $7.95 × 99% = $4,722.30.
2. Unused, substitution. Instead, 600 domestically made housings in the same 10-digit statistical number, worth $40 a unit, are exported. The lesser-of rule caps the refund at 99 percent of the lesser of the duty paid on the import and the duty that would apply to the exported article if it were imported (1313(l)(2)(B); 190.32(b)). CBP applies that rule by value: for Section 301 duties, CSMS 19-000050 says the refund is limited by the value of the substituted merchandise when it is lower than the value of the import. At the same 15.9% on $40 instead of $50, the cap is $6.36 a unit. Refund: 600 × $6.36 × 99% = $3,777.84, not $4,722.30.
3. Manufacturing. The housings go into a product that is exported. Under direct identification, the refund is 99 percent of the duty on the housings used (190.21). Under substitution, the cap compares the duty paid on the import with the duty that would apply to the substituted input, not to the finished article (190.22(a)(1)(ii)).

The $944.46 between options 1 and 2 is the lesser-of rule at work. Nothing on the import line shows it; it comes from the value of the goods that left, which is why a substitution estimate needs the export records before it is worth anything.

When does the refund arrive?

On liquidation of the drawback claim, and no later than 90 days after it (19 U.S.C. 1504(a)(3)). A complete claim on liquidated imports that CBP does not liquidate within one year is deemed liquidated at the amount claimed, unless liquidation is extended or suspended (1504(a)(2); 19 CFR 190.81(e)(2)). CBP's FAQ adds that import entries must be liquidated and past the 180-day protest period, with no open protests and all refund and reconciliation issues resolved, before a drawback refund is paid. The regulations allow one exception: drawback can be paid on estimated duties for import entries not yet finally liquidated if the claimant, and any other party liable for the import duties, files a written request waiving any other right to a refund on those duties (190.81(b)). Claimants approved for accelerated payment receive estimated drawback before liquidation, backed by a bond, and repay any excess after liquidation (190.92). Neither 1313 nor Part 190 adds interest. How the refund is booked is covered on accounting for customs duty refunds.

How do you find drawback in your own entry export?

1. List every line with duty paid, with its import date, units, entered value and each duty amount by heading, from the entry summaries or the broker's entry export.
2. Tag each duty by eligibility using the table above: eligible, manufacturing only, or none. Drop AD/CVD (entry type 03 and column 33B) and any duty whose instrument bars drawback.
3. Compute the eligible duty per unit for each line.
4. Match exports, destructions and returns to those lines: same item for direct identification, same 8-digit subheading (or 10-digit where the description begins with "Other") for substitution, with the export record's Schedule B number as the test. Mark exports to Canada and Mexico, which carry the USMCA cap.
5. Sort by import date and work from the oldest, since those claims expire first.
6. Apply the lesser-of rule to substitution matches, using the value of the exported or substituted goods.

TariffSense reads entry summaries and broker entry exports and returns every line with its HTS number, Chapter 99 headings, duty by heading, units and dates, checked against the measures in force on the entry date. That is the import half of a drawback review. The post-entry audit page shows what comes back, and the post-entry audit pillar covers the line checks. To see which Chapter 99 duties applied to a product on a given date, use the duty calculator. Drawback claims themselves are filed by the claimant or its broker in ACE.

What should you do next on your own entries?

Pull your exports, destructions and customer returns for the last five years and set them beside the import lines for the same products. Start with lines carrying large eligible Chapter 99 duties, such as Section 301, and with the oldest import dates. Check whether a Notice of Intent was filed for each unused export, or whether a waiver of prior notice is in place. Then take the matched list to a licensed customs broker who files drawback, and confirm the kind of drawback, the ruling and the claim plan before the oldest imports pass five years.