U.S. Customs and Border Protection quietly flipped a very expensive switch on Monday, activating Phase 2 of its CAPE tariff-refund portal and widening the pool of import entries that can be reclaimed after the Supreme Court overturned the IEEPA-based tariffs earlier this year. The upgrade pulls certain reconciliation-flagged entries - where duty numbers were still being finalized - into the automated refund pipeline inside ACE and the CAPE tool.
CBP pushed out guidance through its trade messaging system and made the enhancement live on June 29, according to trade-law briefings that walked through the agency’s Cargo Systems Messaging Service update and local coverage. As detailed in a Greenberg Traurig client alert and coverage from Spectrum News, the agency is still rolling out refunds in stages inside the ACE portal rather than opening the floodgates all at once.
What Phase 2 Covers
Phase 2 expands CAPE so it can accept underlying entries that were flagged for post-summary reconciliation (entry types 01, 02 and 06), as long as the related reconciliation entry (type 09) has not yet been filed and the entries are either still unliquidated or within the 80-day window after recent liquidation. Industry guides stress that once a reconciliation entry is actually filed, those underlying entries are generally off the table for a later CAPE declaration, because the math on duties is locked in. CAPE instead lets filers strip out the IEEPA duty line separately from the rest of the reconciliation calculations. The Conveyor and the CAPE Portal Guide lay out step-by-step charts of which entry types qualify and how to move them through the system.
How Much Is Involved
CBP officials and customs lawyers say Phase 2 is not a small add-on. Industry tallies estimate the new lane at roughly 2.8 million reconciliation entries, tied to about $28.7 billion in potential refunds on top of what is already in the queue under Phase 1. In earlier testimony reviewed by trade counsel, CBP told stakeholders that Phase 1 alone had already taken in refund claims covering around $90 billion of the roughly $166 billion collected under the IEEPA tariffs, and that about $23 billion of that had cleared review and been sent to Treasury for payment. Holland & Knight and other industry reporting have the latest snapshots of processing totals along with practical validation tips.
Legal Uncertainty Still Clouds Some Refunds
The Court of International Trade ordered broad reliquidation and refunds in March, but the Justice Department has appealed that remedy and is arguing that CBP should not reliquidate entries that are finally liquidated for non-litigants unless a court specifically tells it to. Trade practitioners have been walking through the government’s appellate stance and the CAPE rollout timeline at recent public hearings. For background on the Supreme Court ruling that set this chain of events in motion, practitioners often point to a Thomson Reuters Institute summary of the February decision. Thompson Hine and mainstream coverage outline how the appeal, paired with a Federal Circuit stay in related litigation, has left some finally-liquidated entries facing extra legal hurdles while the courts sort out how broad the relief should be. The Washington Post and other outlets have been tracking the appellate skirmishing.
What Importers Should Do Next
For importers and brokers still trying to get paid back, the to-do list remains pretty tactical. Trade advisors are urging companies to: pull and reconcile entry summaries so they know which entries land in Phase 1, Phase 2 or the more contested Phase 3 bucket; confirm ACE and CAPE portal access plus the exact CSV declaration template they need to use; and set up an ACH account for electronic refunds so any approved money can actually arrive. CBP’s ACE guidance walks through portal access and reporting tools, and CAPE-focused how-to materials explain the file validations and timing traps that can derail a claim. CAPE filing guides such as TariffsTool are common starting points, and trade counsel are still urging companies to preserve protest and litigation options for finally-liquidated entries where eligibility is being fought out on appeal.
The Phase 2 launch does take some weight off the administrative side of this mess, but the money is not truly safe until the appeals are resolved and Treasury moves approved refunds into pay status. Importers with serious exposure are being told to monitor CAPE validation reports closely, double-check banking details now rather than after a payment bounces, and talk with customs counsel about whether a protective filing at the Court of International Trade still makes sense under the current appellate posture.
