IEEPA Duties Refund System

CBP has provided another update to the U.S. Court of International Trade on the development of its new ACE-based refund system for IEEPA duties, known as CAPE (Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries).

While progress is being made, the system is still under development and not yet ready for deployment.

Latest Development Status

As of March 19, CBP reports the following progress:

• Claim Portal: 73% complete (testing underway)
• Mass Processing: 45% complete (validations and tracking in development)
• Review & Liquidation/Reliquidation: 80% complete (now in testing phase)
• Refund Processing: 63% complete (including refund consolidation functionality)

According to CBP, the system is now moving into more advanced testing phases, which are required before it can go live.

What This Means for Importers

Once operational, CAPE will allow importers and brokers to:

• Submit refund requests directly through a new ACE portal interface
• Have IEEPA tariffs automatically removed and duties recalculated
• Receive consolidated refunds at the importer level, including applicable interest

CBP also confirmed it is building functionality to track processing history and validate entries, which may impact which entries are eligible in early phases of the rollout.

Key Takeaway

Although progress continues, this update confirms that the refund system is still several weeks away from being fully operational.

In the meantime, importers should continue preparing by:

• Reviewing entries that may be eligible for refunds
• Ensuring ACE accounts are properly configured
• Completing ACH refund setup to avoid delays once payments begin