On April 10, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) announced that it will launch Phase 1 of its Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (“CAPE”) functionality on April 20, 2026. Once live, CAPE will allow importers and certain brokers to submit refund requests for duties imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) electronically through CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment (“ACE”) Portal. Phase 1 of CAPE consolidates refund processing for a defined subset of entries, leaving other entry categories to later phases or to alternative administrative or judicial remedies.
This alert summarizes the scope of entries eligible for CAPE’s Phase 1 processing, outlines how CAPE will operate, and highlights practical steps importers should take now to position themselves to receive refunds once CAPE goes live.
CAPE emerges from expedited proceedings before the U.S. Court of International Trade (“CIT” or “Court”) addressing the administration of IEEPA duty refunds. In March 2026, the Court ordered in Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States (Court No. 26 01259) that CBP liquidate or reliquidate import entries without IEEPA duties, including entries made by non plaintiffs. While the Court did not require immediate compliance with that order, it directed CBP to develop a workable administrative mechanism to process IEEPA refunds.
CBP described to the CIT various operational challenges to using existing ACE functionality to process IEEPA refunds at scale, noting that more than 330,000 importers paid or deposited approximately $166 billion in IEEPA duties over more than 53 million entries. CBP proposed an IT solution that would allow importers and authorized brokers to submit a single request covering multiple entries and thereby allow CBP to process refunds in a consolidated and automated manner.
Through a series of conferences and orders, the CIT has closely supervised CBP’s development of this refund mechanism, leading to CBP’s recent announcement of the CAPE launch. The Court continues to oversee CBP’s progress and address unresolved refund issues in Euro-Notions Florida v. United States (Court No. 25-595), the lead case that the Court selected after the Atmus plaintiff voluntarily dismissed its action.
CBP guidance issued on April 10 and April 13 confirms that Phase 1 of CAPE will go live at 8:00 AM Eastern Time on April 20, 2026. Eligible filers will be able to submit refund requests by uploading CSV files containing entry summary numbers (referred to as “declarations”) through a new CAPE tab in the ACE Portal.
In its initial phase, CAPE will accept refund requests for only two categories of entries:
- unliquidated entries; and
- entries less than 80 days past liquidation (as of the submission date to CAPE).
CBP has explained that the 80 day limitation is designed to allow processing within the agency’s 90 day voluntary reliquidation window under 19 U.S.C. § 1501. Entries with suspended, extended, or under review liquidation status, as well as warehouse and warehouse withdrawal entries, may be included in CAPE declarations, but refunds will be issued only after those entries liquidate in the normal course of CBP administration.
CAPE in its initial phase will not accept entries that fall into certain excluded categories, including entries subject to reconciliation or drawback claims, covered by open or suspended protests, subject to certain antidumping or countervailing duty liquidation instructions, not filed in ACE or lacking liquidation status in ACE, more than 80 days past liquidation as of the submission date to CAPE, identified as Type 08 USMCA Duty Deferral or in the Temporary Importation Under Bond program, or showing entered value on Chapter 98 Harmonized Tariff Schedule lines rather than on Chapters 1-97 lines. CBP has indicated that additional functionality will be added in later phases to address a wider range of entry types.
CBP has also emphasized several additional points relevant to Phase 1 processing:
- Post Summary Corrections (“PSCs”) may not be used to seek IEEPA refunds.
- PSCs addressing issues other than IEEPA refunds should be filed before submitting CAPE declarations.
- For entries within 80 days of liquidation, importers may withdraw existing protests filed for IEEPA refunds to allow processing through CAPE, which CBP indicates may result in faster refunds. If a protest is currently suspended by CBP, importers can seek removal of that suspension so the protest can be withdrawn.
- CAPE declarations should be submitted before filing drawback claims covering the same entries.
- CAPE should not be used for entries where a surety paid the IEEPA duties in whole or in part.
To use CAPE, the importer of record (“IOR”) must have an ACE Portal account with the importer sub account view and must separately provide U.S. bank information in the ACE Portal to enable electronic refunds via Automated Clearing House (“ACH”). CBP has indicated that IEEPA refunds will only be issued electronically, so payments to otherwise eligible importers will be delayed until the necessary ACH banking information is provided to CBP.
Refund requests are submitted by uploading CBP mandated CSV files listing entry numbers. Each CSV file may include up to 9,999 entries, and multiple CSV files/declarations may be filed so long as they cover distinct entries. Submissions via the Automated Broker Interface—a system commonly used by brokers for entry filings—are not supported.
Once submitted, each declaration will be validated in ACE, which will confirm that the declaration is a properly completed CSV file, that the entry numbers are accurate and include IEEPA tariff codes, and that the entries fall within the initial scope of CAPE. ACE may reject an entire declaration or individual entries that fail validation, so it is important that filers monitor the acceptance status of their entries in ACE following submission.
CBP indicates that refunds with interest generally will be issued within 60 to 90 days after acceptance of a declaration, absent compliance concerns requiring further review. Refunds for entries in suspended, extended, or under review status will be issued only after liquidation. CBP will issue refunds to the IOR, or to a notified party designated by the IOR if that designation appeared on the original entry. IORs can monitor refund activity using the REV-615 Report, a newly introduced ACE report specific to CAPE refunds.
Based on CBP’s guidance, importers may wish to take several steps ahead of CAPE’s Phase 1 launch to facilitate timely processing of their refund requests:
- Confirm access to the ACE Portal, including the importer sub account view required for CAPE filings and refund monitoring.
- Confirm ACH refund enrollment and verify that any banking information on file for refunds is accurate and complete.
- Identify entries eligible for Phase 1 processing, taking into account the various types of entries excluded from Phase 1 processing.
- Review any pending protests filed on entries that liquidated within 80 days of the planned CAPE submission date and withdraw those protests to enable CAPE processing as necessary.
Looking ahead, CBP has indicated that CAPE will be implemented in phases, with later phases intended to address more complex entry scenarios, including entries outside CBP’s 90 day voluntary reliquidation window. For entries beyond that window, importers should closely monitor protest deadlines (180 days from liquidation) as, depending on the pace and scope of CAPE’s expansion, filing protests may become the necessary administrative pathway to preserve refund rights. The treatment of even earlier entries, i.e. those already beyond the protest deadline, remains unresolved. For those entries, importers may ultimately need to file a case at the CIT, subject to further guidance from CBP and the Court.
Another open issue concerns potential offsets of IEEPA refunds. CBP indicated that when reviewing CAPE declarations it may consider whether an IOR has compliance issues or outstanding bills unrelated to IEEPA. More recent guidance suggests that later phases of CAPE may introduce tools to offset an IOR’s outstanding bills against IEEPA refunds.
Finally, the Government may still appeal the CIT’s orders on refunds. Although CBP continues to make progress implementing CAPE under CIT supervision, unresolved issues remain regarding the ultimate scope of entries eligible for refunds in CAPE and whether any judicially ordered relief may be limited to plaintiffs. An appeal by the Administration remains a possibility, which may affect the operation of CAPE.
Covington can assist companies in assessing the procedural posture of affected entries and evaluating administrative and litigation options for preserving and pursuing refund rights.
If you have any questions concerning the material discussed in this client alert, please contact the following members of our Trade Policy practice.
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