U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has released details on how it will process refunds to President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled as unlawful earlier this year.
Trump placed reciprocal tariffs on all trading partners on April 2, 2025 — deemed “Liberation Day.” The administration justified the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a national security law from 1977 that allows the president to “regulate” imports under an emergency. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court said IEEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs.
CBP will launch on April 20, 2026, the first phase of the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) tool in the Automated Commercial Environment Secure Data Portal (ACE Portal), which should simplify IEEPA duty refund requests.
CAPE will consolidate refunds of IEEPA duties including interest rather than processing refunds on an entry-by-entry basis. CBP plans to implement CAPE in phases and will later add more functionality for more complicated scenarios. CAPE Phase 1 is limited to “certain unliquidated entries and certain entries within 80 days of liquidation.”
Prior to the Supreme Court ruling, thousands of American businesses filed complaints with the U.S. Court of International Trade for refunds. Some of the refund requests came from companies involved in the solar industry, including American Wire Group, Canadian Solar, GameChange Solar, Fluke, Hellermann Tyton, Kinematics, JA Solar, Jinko Solar, Longi, Merlin Solar, Qcells and Trina Solar.
CBP says that those requesting IEEPA refunds will need to have accounts in the ACE Portal. The importer of record or authorized broker will file a CAPE declaration and then CBP will recalculate duties due without IEEPA. Refunds would then be consolidated and released. More instructions can be found here.
