National Emergency Authority To Temporarily Extend Deadlines for Certain Estimated Payments

The order invokes emergency trade authority under 19 U.S.C. § 1318(a) and makes that authority available to the Secretary of the Treasury to temporarily extend deadlines for estimated customs payments owed by importers who are suffering significant financial hardship due to COVID-19. It directs the Secretary to consider taking action under that statute and requires the Secretary to consult with the Secretary of Homeland Security before exercising the authority.

The relief is expressly limited: extensions do not apply to estimated payments assessed under the anti-dumping, countervailing duty, national-security tariff (Section 232), safeguard (Section 201), or Section 301 trade-remedy provisions of title 19. The order does not itself grant any extension — it delegates authority to the Secretary to decide whether and how to act.

Importers of goods into the United States who owe estimated customs payments and are experiencing significant financial hardship because of COVID-19. The Department of the Treasury and the Department of Homeland Security are directed to act and consult under the order.

Importers struggling financially during the COVID-19 shutdown could gain more time to make routine customs duty payments, easing short-term cash-flow pressure. However, because the order only instructs the Secretary to "consider" acting, no relief is guaranteed until Treasury follows up with a formal determination.

The order unlocks statutory authority the Secretary of the Treasury did not previously hold in this context, but it does not itself grant any extension. The Secretary must separately decide to act under 19 U.S.C. § 1318(a) and must first consult with the Secretary of Homeland Security. The exclusions for anti-dumping, countervailing, and trade-remedy payments are self-executing limits written into the order. No reporting deadline or enforcement mechanism is specified beyond the consultation requirement.