CBP Confirms October 6, 2026 Launch of Phase 3 of the IEEPA Tariff Refund Process

On September 15, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) announced in a declaration filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade (“CIT”) that Phase 3 of the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (“CAPE”), the system for administering refunds of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”), will deploy on October 6, 2026.

According to Brandon Lord, CBP’s Executive Director of Trade Programs, Phase 3 of the CAPE will allow importers of record to request IEEPA tariff refunds on entries that have been liquidated for more than 80 days.  Previously, the CAPE only allowed importers of record to seek IEEPA tariff refunds for unliquidated entries and certain entries within 80 days of liquidation as part of Phase 1 of the CAPE, which launched on April 20, 2026 (see Update of April 10, 2026).  Phase 2 of the CAPE, which launched on June 29, 2026, extended that eligibility to certain reconciliation entries (see Update of June 25, 2026).

According to the declaration, however, only importers of record that are “plaintiffs” with a case pending before the CIT seeking IEEPA tariff refunds may participate in Phase 3 of the CAPE. To do so, the importer of record/plaintiff must provide CBP with its importer of record number. For example, Lord stated in the declaration, importers of record/plaintiffs that submitted their IOR number to CBP by July 30, 2026, can begin participating in Phase 3 on October 6.

Whether CBP’s position that only importers of record with an IEEPA tariff refund case pending before the CIT may participate in Phase 3 of the CAPE remains subject to ongoing litigation. After largely complying with a CIT order requiring CBP to refund all importers of record that paid those duties, the federal government appealed the portion of the order requiring CBP to refund non-litigating importers of record the IEEPA duties on entries that have been liquidated for more than 80 days (see Update of June 3, 2026). According to the federal government, CBP has voluntarily been issuing refunds to all importers of record on unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation, but (i) “CBP has no authority to reliquidate or refund money without a court order” for entries beyond that period and (ii) the CIT lacks the authority to issue such universal relief to non-litigating importers of record.