U.S. Customs and Border Protection is on track to launch its dedicated refund system for International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs on April 20 at 8 a.m. EDT, according to a Tuesday court filing.
The agency previously confirmed the planned April 20 launch date, but its latest update before the Court of International Trade has now clarified exactly when importers will be able to begin submitting entries into the system.
In the leadup to launch, CBP said it will be conducting “intensive testing” on the four components of the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system, noting that primary development is now complete. Once an entry is submitted and accepted, it will take roughly 60-90 days for refunds to be issued, according to the CBP’s website.
All refunds will be delivered electronically, in keeping with a new CBP policy that went into effect in February. According to the agency’s filing Tuesday, about 82% of entries eligible for IEEPA refunds have registered for electronic payment. Based on that percentage, CBP expects to deliver roughly $127 billion in refunds for levies the Supreme Court struck down in February.
Following the high court’s ruling, the Court of International Trade ordered CBP to issue refunds to shippers who paid IEEPA tariffs on imports that had not been finalized via liquidation. The court later expanded the directive to include finally liquidated entries. However, CBP said it would be unable to implement that functionality for the initial launch of CAPE and would develop additional capabilities for future iterations.
In the meantime, while Tuesday’s filing confirms an exact day and time for when importers can begin filing for IEEPA tariff refunds, questions remain about how smoothly the system will operate under real-world conditions.
“CAPE is clearly designed to make intake easy. Almost deceptively easy,” Pete Mento, director of global trade advisory services at Baker Tilly, said in a LinkedIn post. “But nothing in this update suggests CBP is relaxing scrutiny on the back end. If anything, this feels like ‘get it in the door quickly, we’ll decide what happens after.’”
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