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Lewis Brisbois has been closely tracking the government's progress on issuing tariff refunds since the Supreme Court's decision that the Trump Administration's IEEPA tariffs are unlawful. Since that ruling, proceedings as to the process for tariff refunds have continued in the Court of International Trade ("CIT"), while action on the thousands of individual company petitions for refunds remains stayed.
In early March, the CIT ordered refunds of all unliquidated, or preliminary, entries and liquidated entries that are not yet final. On March 27, 2026, the CIT amended that order, prescribing that any liquidated entries for which liquidation is final shall also be refunded, a welcome answer to one of many questions that have emerged as the process has evolved.
In the meantime, the government has provided several updates regarding its progress on setting up an automated refund system through its ACE portal, the government's "centralized digital system for processing imports and exports." To process the massive amount of IEEPA refunds, Customs and Border Protection ("CBP") is developing a new capability within its ACE portal – called the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries ("CAPE") – to process such refunds. Per the government's most recent status update, the CAPE system is designed with four components: Claim Portal, Mass Processing, Review and Liquidation/Reliquidation, and Refund. The system will be available within the ACE Portal accounts of both importers and brokers.
Filing a claim (the "Claim Portal Component") will involve, at least, uploading a CSV file – a simple file format used to store tabular data (numbers and text) – containing a list of entry summaries for which an IEEPA refund is requested. The file will then undergo a two-step review: (1) a file review to ensure (a) that the file is properly formatted and contains all the required information, and (b) that the submitter is the importer of record; and (2) entry-specific validations to confirm that "an entry summary number listed in the submitted CSV file exists in ACE and that at least one IEEPA Harmonized Tariff Schedule Chapter 99 number was declared on that entry." As of March 31, 2026, this component is 85% complete.
The Mass Processing Component, responsible for managing the duty calculation validations under the normal ACE process, will be implemented in two phases to accommodate the Court's amended order. Phase 1 will process unliquidated entries and entries within the 90-day voluntary reliquidation period. Claims for entries in which the liquidation status is "Suspended," "Extended," or "Under Review," and claims containing warehouse and warehouse withdrawal entries will also be accepted as part of Phase 1. For entries with the above-listed liquidation statuses, CAPE will update the entries by removing the IEEPA duties and recalculating the duties owed minus the IEEPA tariff portion; CBP says the IEEPA duties will be refunded upon liquidation. Warehouse and warehouse withdrawal entries will undergo a liquidation process by CBP "in the normal course after all withdrawals have been made and the warehouse entry is ready for liquidation." Entries that will not be accepted on a CAPE declaration in Phase 1 include those (1) flagged for reconciliation; (2) designated on a drawback claim; (3) covered by an open (unresolved) protest; (4) not filed in ACE or without a liquidation status in ACE; and (5) subject to antidumping or countervailing duty orders that are subject to Commerce Department liquidation instructions or pending liquidation. CBP estimates that Phase 1 "will be capable of processing approximately 63% of entries for which IEEPA duties were paid or have been deposited." CBP did not provide an estimate of the completion status of this component. Entries not included in Phase 1 should be processed in Phase 2.
The Review and Liquidation/Reliquidation Component, 80% complete, "will automatically set the entries to liquidate/reliquidate on a specified number of days from the acceptance date, allowing CBP to conduct a manual review as needed." Finally, under the Refund Component, when entries from the Claim Portal Component reach the "scheduled liquidation/reliquidation date, ACE will direct those entries to a CAPE-specific refund process within the ACE Collections refunds module. Refunds will be consolidated by liquidation/reliquidation date and [importer of record] or a party the [importer of record] has designated to receive refunds on its behalf. This component is 75% complete.
There is still no clear date by which the CAPE system will be ready to fully process these claims, but CBP says it will take up to 45 days from acceptance of a CAPE declaration to review and liquidate the entry summaries identified on the CAPE declaration, unless there is a compliance concern. Throughout the process, businesses and importers should carefully check their entry records to ensure accuracy of the refund amounts. As with any new electronic systems, questions will arise as to the accuracy and operational performance of the system. Other remaining questions include:
- Whether importers will need to bifurcate their claims by the phases outlined above, or if all claims, regardless of liquidation status, can be submitted at once for the system to sort out and manage;
- In the event that a refund is inaccurate, whether such refund is subject to challenge, either through an administrative protest or court action;
- The order in which claims will be processed (i.e., by date the claim was received, by entry date, etc.); and
- Whether the government will appeal the CIT-imposed process. The deadline for an appeal is May 4, 2026.
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