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How Importers Hit by the Venezuelan Oil IEEPA Tariff Can Recover Duties Through CAPE

The March 2025 executive order targeting Venezuelan oil was the most unusual of the four IEEPA tariff regimes — a "secondary" duty structured to apply not on Venezuelan-origin goods, but on imports from any country that purchased Venezuelan crude. Many U.S. importers paid the 25% IEEPA Chapter 99 line on entries they would not have flagged as "Venezuela-related" at all. This page explains how to identify affected entries and file CAPE Phase 1 refunds.

Why this tariff caught importers off guard

The Canadian, Chinese, and Mexican IEEPA tariffs were straightforward: if your goods came from one of those three countries, you paid. The Venezuelan oil tariff was different. It applied to imports from any country whose government or major refiners had purchased Venezuelan crude oil. The mechanism: Treasury identified affected countries, and CBP applied a 25% IEEPA duty on imports of any product from those countries.

That means importers who never touched Venezuelan crude — apparel, electronics, food, chemicals, machinery — could find a 25% IEEPA Chapter 99 line on their entry summary if their supplier country was on the affected list at the time of entry. A surprising number of refund candidates only realize they paid this tariff when they audit their CBP-7501s during CAPE preparation.

Are your entries CAPE Phase 1 eligible?

The standard Phase 1 eligibility rules apply:

• Eligible: Unliquidated entries with at least one IEEPA Chapter 99 line; entries liquidated within roughly 80 days of the filing date
• Excluded: AD/CVD content, drawback claims, pending protests, reconciliation, warehouse status, suspended/extended/under-review liquidation

For Venezuelan-oil-secondary-tariff entries, the eligibility test is identical to other IEEPA refunds: was an IEEPA Chapter 99 line assessed and paid? If yes, and the entry is not in an excluded category, it is a refund candidate.

How to identify affected entries

The fastest audit path is to query your ACE Reports for all entries between March 24, 2025 and February 24, 2026 with any Chapter 99 line in the 9903.01.25 – 9903.01.70 range. That single query will surface all four IEEPA tariff regimes at once. From there, sort by country of origin to identify which entries fell under the Venezuelan oil secondary tariff versus the Canada / China / Mexico programs.

See our guide to tracking CAPE entries through ACE Reports for the exact ES022 and ES701 query setup.

Country-specific factors for affected importers

Multi-line entries with non-Venezuela goods

Most affected entries are not "petroleum entries." They are normal commercial entries — consumer goods, industrial inputs, components — that happen to come from a country on the affected list. Your refund target is the IEEPA Chapter 99 line, not the petroleum classification of the goods. The product type does not matter for refund logic.

Petroleum and petrochemical entries

For actual fuel, lubricant, and petrochemical importers, the IEEPA line was assessed on top of any product-specific duties (such as Section 232 on steel-containing equipment or HTSUS rates on petroleum products). CAPE refunds only the IEEPA layer; product-specific duties remain owed.

Country-list timing

The list of countries subject to the Venezuelan oil secondary tariff could change during the policy period. The IEEPA duty was applied based on the country's listing status at the time of entry. Each entry must be evaluated individually based on whether the IEEPA Chapter 99 line was actually assessed on that entry.

Your recovery options

• CAPE Phase 1 — primary path for unliquidated and recently-liquidated entries
• Protest under 19 U.S.C. § 1514 — file within 180 days of liquidation as a parallel safeguard
• CIT litigation — for fully liquidated entries outside the Phase 1 windows or AD/CVD-excluded entries, a Court of International Trade lawsuit may be the only path

Next steps

1. Run an ACE Reports query for all entries between March 24, 2025 and February 24, 2026 with a Chapter 99 line in 9903.01.25 – 9903.01.70.
2. Sort by country of origin to isolate Venezuelan-oil-secondary-tariff entries.
3. Filter out AD/CVD, drawback, pending protest, reconciliation, warehouse, and suspended entries.
4. Sum the actual IEEPA duty paid on each affected entry for refund estimation.
5. Use the 7-step CAPE filing guide or get a free assessment.

Get a free assessment for affected entries

Affected importer FAQs

Disclaimer: CAPE Portal Guide is not a law firm, customs broker, or government agency. The Venezuelan oil secondary tariff was a novel legal mechanism; consult a licensed customs attorney or broker for entry-level decisions.