Overview
- CBP, which told the trade court Tuesday it had finished Phase 1, plans to open the CAPE tab in the ACE portal Monday, April 20, to send one electronic refund per importer with interest.
- Phase 1 will handle most unliquidated entries and those within about 80 days of liquidation, covering roughly 60% of affected entries, and CBP is weighing options for about $2.9 billion that would otherwise need manual processing.
- To get paid, importers or their brokers must have ACE accounts, provide U.S. bank details, and upload a CAPE Declaration listing entry numbers in CSV format under strict validations.
- Only about 56,497 importers have completed electronic refund setup covering roughly $127 billion, out of more than 330,000 that paid the duties and an estimated $166 billion pool.
- CBP says validated refunds will generally arrive 60 to 90 days after acceptance, the Court of International Trade is requiring another update by April 28, and many companies say they do not plan to pass refunds on to shoppers.