Tariff‑refund portal opens

Companies can start filing for some U.S. tariff refunds on Monday, April 20, through Customs’ online ACE portal after the Supreme Court struck down most emergency tariffs. (npr.org) U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the first phase will run through a new CAPE system inside the Automated Commercial Environment, or ACE, its trade-processing portal. The agency’s guidance says Phase 1 covers certain unliquidated entries and some entries still within 80 days of liquidation. (hoganlovells.com) The opening comes almost exactly two months after the Supreme Court’s February 2026 ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not authorize the tariffs at issue. Customs set April 20, 2026, as the start date for refund requests. (npr.org) The case covers tariffs collected under the emergency-powers law known as IEEPA, not every import duty on the books. Customs is launching the system in stages, so some importers will still be waiting even after the portal goes live. (tspr.org) Law firms tracking the rollout say approved claims are expected to be paid electronically, with Customs estimating 60 to 90 days after acceptance if there are no compliance problems. Those same advisories say the Court of International Trade has been pressing Customs to build a process large enough for millions of entries. (hoganlovells.com, skadden.com) The sums are large. Time reported the refunds relate to roughly $130 billion in collected tariffs, while Skadden said the trade court’s refund order could reach about $165 billion and affect more than 330,000 importers across more than 53 million entries. (time.com, skadden.com) The refund process is opening as the administration shifts to other trade laws that do allow tariffs after formal findings. In the past two weeks, President Donald Trump has expanded Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper, and advisers expect new Section 301 cases to target additional goods later this year. (whitehouse.gov, wipfli.com) Section 232 is the national-security tariff law; Section 301 is the unfair-trade-practices law. Trade advisers say that means importers may recover money on the invalidated emergency tariffs while still facing new duties on metals, components and other products under different legal authority. (perkinscoie.com, wipfli.com) For companies that spent the past two months waiting for instructions, Monday is less a finish line than the start of a claims queue. The portal is open, but the broader tariff fight has moved to a different part of the law. (npr.org, whitehouse.gov)