U.S. opens online portal to process tariff refunds after Supreme Court ruled duties unlawful

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has opened an online portal for businesses to claim refunds on tariffs the Supreme Court ruled unlawful in February. (cbp.gov) (supremecourt.gov) The system is called CAPE, short for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, and it went live on April 20 inside Customs’ Automated Commercial Environment portal. (cbp.gov) Phase 1 is narrow: it covers certain unliquidated entries and certain entries within 80 days of liquidation, not every potentially eligible shipment at once. (cbp.gov) Importers of record and authorized customs brokers must file a CAPE declaration as a comma-separated values file, and each submission can include as many as 9,999 entries. (cbp.gov) The refund fight started on Feb. 20, when the Supreme Court held 6-3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize a president to impose tariffs. (supremecourt.gov) (scotusblog.com) The tariffs at issue included duties tied to drug-trafficking emergencies and broad “reciprocal” tariffs that the opinion said Trump had imposed under IEEPA after declaring national emergencies. (supremecourt.gov) A second turning point came on March 4, when Judge Richard K. Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade said all importers of record whose entries were subject to IEEPA duties were entitled to the benefit of the Supreme Court’s decision. (sullcrom.com) (nortonrosefulbright.com) That order told Customs to liquidate or reliquidate many non-final entries without the IEEPA duties, pushing the dispute from court theory into refund administration. (sullcrom.com) (kpmg.com) Customs says CAPE is designed to issue one consolidated refund amount, including interest, instead of forcing importers through entry-by-entry repayments. (cbp.gov) (cnbc.com) Lawyers and analysts say the money may still take time. Skadden estimated roughly $165 billion in unlawfully collected duties across more than 53 million entries and more than 330,000 importers, while CNBC reported skepticism about delays and possible legal challenges. (skadden.com) (cnbc.com) Wall Street analysts have started putting company-by-company numbers on the stakes. CNBC, citing Citi, said Walmart could be due about $10.2 billion, Target $2.2 billion and Nike about $1 billion. (cnbc.com) For now, the portal does not end the tariff saga. It gives Customs a mechanism to process claims, while importers still have to prove eligibility and wait for the government to turn court wins into cash. (cbp.gov) (skadden.com)