Overview
- CBP told the trade court in a Tuesday filing that its new CAPE system remains on a 45‑day schedule for a mid‑April rollout following the Supreme Court’s February ruling that the IEEPA tariffs were unlawfully collected, with delays adding about $700 million a month in interest.
- The first wave will handle about 63% of roughly 53 million affected entries by focusing on imports that are still unliquidated or within a 90‑day reliquidation window, while finally liquidated entries will wait for later phases even though the court ordered refunds for them too.
- CBP reported key build status for CAPE’s modules: the claim portal about 85% complete, mass processing 60%, review and liquidation 80%, and refund 75%, and it said accepted declarations may take up to 45 days to review and pay.
- Phase One will not accept entries flagged for reconciliation, designated on drawback claims, under open protest, lacking an ACE liquidation status, or certain anti‑dumping and countervailing duty cases where Commerce has already issued liquidation instructions.
- Refunds will be paid electronically, so importers must ensure ACE access and ACH banking details are current after more than 12,300 certified payments failed for missing information, and early registration data showing 26,664 users claiming $120 billion has raised concern that smaller firms are falling behind.