Here’s What Importers Need to Know

CBP filed an update with the Court of International Trade on April 28 — eight days after the CAPE portal went live — and the numbers tell the story.

11 million entries have been accepted by CAPE and passed entry-specific validations. Of those, about 1.74 million have been liquidated and are in the refund process.

That’s meaningful volume in a week. It also means roughly 9.3 million entries are still in the pipeline — accepted, validated, but not yet liquidated.

For anyone catching up: CAPE — Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries — is the mechanism CBP built to process IEEPA tariff refunds through the ACE system. Phase 1 launched on April 20, 2026, following the Supreme Court’s February ruling that struck down IEEPA tariff authority.

If your company paid duties under IEEPA over the past year, the CAPE portal is how you file for your refund.

CBP reported that CAPE functionality is working successfully. The only downtime since launch was an 18-minute period on April 20 when CBP paused declarations to reconfigure resources and optimize processing. They’ve committed to monitoring and addressing issues as they come up.

For the importers and brokers who were concerned about system capacity after the initial rush — that’s a reasonable data point. One 18-minute pause in eight days of processing 11 million entries is stable infrastructure.

It’s worth noting what CBP’s filing doesn’t address. NCBFAA’s Customs Counsel at Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg flagged two gaps:

That matters because Phase 1 covers the initial wave, but there are outstanding questions about how later phases will handle more complex entry types, protest-based claims, and the timeline for processing the full refund obligations.

If you haven’t enrolled in the CAPE portal yet, the system is live and processing. The early data suggests it’s functioning as intended, and the sooner your entries are in the queue, the sooner they move through liquidation.

If you’ve already filed and you’re waiting on liquidation — the 1.74 million figure tells you the pipeline is moving, but there’s a long line ahead of the remaining 9.3 million accepted entries.

For companies that need help understanding which entries qualify, how to structure claims, or what CAPE Phase 1 covers versus what’s still pending — that’s what a licensed customs broker does. Our team at Premio and Falcone Global has been working clients through this since April 20.

The refund exists. The portal works. The question is whether you’re in it.

Falcone Global Solutions is a licensed customs brokerage and freight forwarding company headquartered in Atlanta, GA. For questions about IEEPA refunds and the CAPE portal, contact our customs team.