Important SBLC Updates

Tariff Refunds Update – April 2026

 Please accept this update on IEEPA tariff refunds.  U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) announced that Phase 1 of its “CAPE” process for refunding IEEPA tariffs is scheduled to begin on Monday, April 20, 2026.  Firstrecommendation is to take a deep breath because Phase 1 does not cover every type of IEEPA transaction and begins on a limited basis.  Caveat, as always, that this is based on information available as of Friday, April 17, 2026.  Things change rapidly in this administration.

Here is what we know about the “CAPE” refund process

“CAPE” stands for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries.  Here is the official CPB note and information on CAPE:  https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCBP/bulletins/4126a9c   

Through the CAPE Claim Portal, only the importer of record or its authorized broker(s) will be able to submit refund requests by uploading a .CSV file listing eligible entries as described below.  Remember, this only applies to IEEPA-related tariffs and not Section 122, 232, 301, or any other tariffs. 

Refund submissions will be subjected to a validation process and, once validated, CAPE will remove IEEPA HTS numbers from covered entries, recalculate duties, and support liquidation or reliquidation without the IEEPA duties, routing the refunds into ACE’s collections module for delivery with potential interest (if applicable).  More on ACE below.

Limited Start for Applying for IEEPA Refunds

Phase 1 of the IEEPA refund process only focuses on basic transactions and will not cover all entries on which IEEPA tariffs were paid.  Specifically, at this time, CBP will only accept CAPE declarations for entries that were liquidated within the preceding 80 days to ensure compliance with CBP’s 90-day voluntary reliquidation period.  The language from CBP suggests that importers will not be permitted to include “finally liquidated” entries in their Phase I refund declarations and will need to wait for a subsequent phase.  In addition, CBP clarified certain other categories of entries that will not be accepted on a CAPE declaration during Phase 1:

• Entries flagged for reconciliation and Entry Type 09 – Reconciliation Summary entries
• Entries designated for drawback claims
• Entries covered by a protest
• Entries not filed in ACE and without a liquidation status in ACE
• Entries subject to antidumping and countervailing duties that have liquidation instructions

Following acceptance of a complete, validated CAPE refund declaration, and assuming no complicating issues, CBP still estimates there will be a 60 to 90‑day review period for even the most straightforward transactions.  Subsequent phases of refund submissions are clearly coming, but there are no available details on the next phases currently.

Preparing for CAPE Refund Claims

To participate in the CAPE refund process, importers of record and their authorized customs brokers must have an ACE Secure Data Portal account and must ensure that bank account information for refund recipients is up to date in ACE.  “ACE” stands for the Automated Commercial Environment and is the United States’s centralized digital system for processing imports and exports.  See website here: https://www.cbp.gov/trade/automated    

CAPE refund declarations (as described above) will be filed in the ACE Portal by the importer or by the broker who originally filed the underlying entries, and refunds will be issued electronically. 

Because CAPE is designed to handle refund requests in consolidated batches, importers should expect that refunds will not be immediate even once Phase 1 goes live and that CBP will likely prioritize submissions that pass automated validations and do not raise compliance concerns. The staged nature of CAPE means that importers may need to sequence their claims and maintain detailed tracking of which entries are included in each CAPE declaration, especially where multiple brokers or related entities are involved.

Compliance Risks When Filing CAPE Refund Claims 

Each CAPE refund claim will require a certification by the importer that the entry summaries in the CAPE declaration comply with all applicable laws.  Importers, in advance, should identify risks posed by any historically non‑compliant entries before including those entries in a CAPE declaration, particularly where prior disclosures or internal reviews have not yet been completed. Companies with IEEPA related supply chains may find that CAPE creates both an opportunity to recover material refunds but also an obligation to reconcile past compliance gaps.

How to Prepare for IEEPA Refunds 

As previously discussed on our SBLC webinar, importers who paid IEEPA tariffs should consider the following measures: 

1. Ensure that they have an account in CBP’s ACE system

2. Establish an Automated Clearing House (ACH) link in ACE

3. Conduct a refund analysis and risk assessment.

Obtain import records/reports from ACE or your customs broker. Monitor U.S. imports for which IEEPA tariffs were paid and their liquidation status (e.g., unliquidated, liquidated but not yet final entries, and “finally liquidated” entries) and:

a. Separate liquidated entries into two groups: (i) liquidated but not “final” entries that are within 80 days after liquidation (i.e., eligible for Phase 1) and (ii) entries more than 80 days past liquidation (which likely will need to be filed during a subsequent phase).

b. Stay vigilant to preserve your right to refunds. For entries liquidated more than 90 days but less than 180 days, consider filing a protest with CBP. It is not clear, however, how such entries will be treated by subsequent CAPE phases. According to CBP’s messaging, entries subject to a protest will not be eligible for Phase 1.

c. For finally liquidated entries that are beyond the 180-day protest period, consider filing an appeal with the CIT before the end of the two-year statute of limitations from the date of entry. However, according to the Court’s order on March 27, such entries are eligible for refund by CBP and will likely be included in a subsequent phase of CAPE. 

This is obviously a lot to digest, so please let us know what additional questions you may have. We will do our best to address them with SBLC to inform in further updates as things unfold over the next few months.