U.S. CBP provided the Court of International Trade (CIT) with an update on March 12 regarding the development of a new ACE functionality to process refunds of duties imposed under the IEEPA. The system, known as the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE), will allow importers and customs brokers to submit refund requests through a new web-based claim portal within the ACE Portal. Filers will upload a CSV file listing entry summaries for which IEEPA refunds are requested, and ACE will conduct file and entry validations to ensure the data is properly formatted, the filer is authorized, and the entries exist in the system with IEEPA tariff lines. Entries that fail validation will be flagged for correction, while valid entries continue through processing.
CBP is designing CAPE with four integrated components: Claim Portal, Mass Processing, Review and Liquidation/Reliquidation, and Refund. Once validated, CAPE will automatically remove the IEEPA tariff numbers from the entries and recalculate duties through a mass processing component. The system will then initiate the review and liquidation or reliquidation process, automatically setting a future liquidation date to allow CBP time for manual review if needed. During this stage, ACE will update the entry summaries, calculate any applicable interest, and process liquidations or reliquidations Monday through Thursday each week. After liquidation or reliquidation occurs, the refund component will consolidate refunds by the importer of record or an authorized designee and issue payments electronically through ACE.
CBP reported that development of the system is progressing, with the claim portal approximately 70% complete, the mass processing component 40% complete, the review and liquidation/reliquidation component 80% complete, and the refund component 60% complete as of March 11. In its initial phase, CAPE is expected to process most formal and informal entries that included IEEPA duties, although certain situations will not be included at launch, such as unliquidated entries subject to antidumping or countervailing duties, entries with liquidation statuses of suspended, extended, or under review, warehouse withdrawals, and entries designated on a duty drawback claim. CBP indicated that additional functionality will be added in later phases to address these more complex scenarios.
CIT Judge Richard Eaton described CBP’s progress on developing the automated refund process as satisfactory and allowed the continued suspension of an earlier order requiring liquidation without IEEPA tariffs. The court also directed the government to provide another progress report by March 19, while CBP has indicated the CAPE system may be ready to begin accepting refund claims within approximately 45 days.