Duty drawback is a refund of duties, certain taxes, and fees collected on imported goods that are later exported or destroyed. It has existed since 1789 and is codified at 19 U.S.C. §1313. Up to 99% of what you paid can be refunded, with the remaining 1% retained by CBP as an administrative fee.

Drawback claims must be filed within five years of the date of importation. That means you are not limited to this year's shipments, historical entries still inside the five-year window can be claimed now, which is where most first-time recoveries come from. Each quarter that passes, another quarter of eligible entries drops out of the window.

No. The party entitled to claim drawback is determined by the drawback rules and by agreement between the importer, manufacturer, and exporter. In many cases the importer claims, and in others the exporter assigns the right to drawback back to the importer. We sort out who holds the claim and document it properly.

Yes. Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods and Section 232 duties on steel and aluminum are both drawback-eligible, and for many importers they are the single largest component of the refund. Antidumping and countervailing duties are not eligible.

Those executive orders expressly excluded drawback, so IEEPA duties cannot be recovered through a drawback claim. They follow a separate path through the Court of International Trade. If you paid IEEPA tariffs, see our Tariff Refund Recovery service — the two recoveries can run in parallel.

Billions of dollars in eligible drawback go unclaimed every year. For most mid-sized importers a first recovery lands in the five- to six-figure range; companies importing at scale from high-duty origins recover seven figures and more. The driver is not your revenue, it is how much duty you paid and how much of that merchandise left the country.

Expect roughly three to six months to get the program approved and the first claims paid, since rulings and privileges have to be in place first. After that, claims filed on an ongoing schedule typically pay out in about a month each. Without accelerated payment privileges you would instead wait for the underlying entries to liquidate, which can take a year or more.

The short test: you paid duty at import, and some of those goods later left the United States or were destroyed. If both are true, you likely have a claim. The assessment is where we confirm it, we look at your entry data and export records and tell you what qualifies, at no cost.

Import entry summaries (CBP Form 7501) and commercial invoices, export documentation such as bills of lading and export invoices or AES filings, and inventory or production records that connect the two. If your broker holds most of it, we work directly with them so your team is not doing the retrieval.

Brokers file entries; drawback is a separate specialty with its own rulings, privileges, and recordkeeping standards, and most brokers do not file it. We work alongside your broker rather than replacing them, they keep clearing your freight while we handle the refund side.

Drawback claims are subject to CBP review, which is exactly why documentation matters. We build every claim to be defensible on its face: matched entry and export records, clean inventory accounting, and a complete file retained for the required period. If CBP asks questions, the answers are already assembled.

Nothing. The assessment is free and carries no obligation. Our fee is a percentage of what we actually recover, so if the claims do not produce a refund, you owe us nothing.