Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) reported to the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) on June 10 that, as of June 5, approximately $94.94 billion in potential and certified International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariff refunds have been accepted for processing through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Consolidated Administrative and Processing of Entries (CAPE) Phase 1 program. These refund claims cover approximately 16.74 million import entries.
Phase 1 of CAPE launched on April 20 to facilitate the court-ordered refund of IEEPA duties. CBP is now developing additional CAPE functionality to process refunds for reconciliation entries, with deployment expected on June 29. The agency is scheduled to provide a further status update to the CIT during a June 11 meeting with the court.
Finally Liquidated Entries Outside the Scope of CAPE Phase 1
For finally liquidated entries, the key takeaway from a declaration by Susan Thomas, executive assistant, is that CBP currently does not intend to issue IEEPA refunds through CAPE for non-plaintiff entries that liquidated more than 80 days ago. Because the court’s order requiring reliquidation of all entries is currently under appeal, CBP is currently limiting future CAPE enhancements for finally liquidated entries only to plaintiffs in litigation.
In practical terms, CBP has signaled a distinction between three groups of entries:
- Unliquidated entries and recently liquidated entries (within 80 days): These are already covered by CAPE, with CBP continuing to process refunds.
- Finally liquidated entries belonging to plaintiffs in active lawsuits: CBP plans to address in a future CAPE phase.
- Finally liquidated entries belonging to non-plaintiffs: CBP is not currently planning to refund unless the courts ultimately require it.
CBP specifically stated that if the courts ultimately issue a final order requiring reliquidation of all importers’ entries, it will comply. However, until that happens, the agency is not developing refund functionality for finally liquidated non-plaintiff entries. The June 4 declaration suggests that importers with finally liquidated entries who did not file suit may be dependent on the outcome of the government’s appeal.
