CBP Provides Update for CAPE and IEEPA Refunds – April 20 Phase 1 Deployment
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Monday, April 13, issued an update to the trade regarding the deployment of the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) Phase 1 on April 20.
Background
On March 2, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued its formal mandate to the Court of International Trade (CIT) with respect to duties collected pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
On March 4, in Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States, the CIT ordered “that, with respect to any and all unliquidated entries that were entered subject to the IEEPA duties, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is hereby directed to liquidate those entries without regard to the IEEPA duties” and that “[a]ny liquidated entries for which liquidation is not final shall be reliquidated without regard to IEEPA duties.” Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States (Ct. No. 26-01259).
On March 6, the CIT suspended the immediacy requirement of its March 4, order to allow CBP to proceed with development of an automated tool capable of processing the unprecedented volume and value of the refunds of duties collected pursuant to IEEPA.
On April 7, in Euro-Notions Florida, Inc. v. United States, the CIT ordered that CBP liquidate unliquidated entries that were entered with IEEPA duties without regard to those IEEPA duties, and reliquidate entries for which liquidation is not final without regard to IEEPA duties. The CIT suspended the order to the extent it requires immediate compliance.
Accordingly, CBP has developed CAPE automated functionality in ACE to efficiently process refunds for Importers of Record (IOR) who have paid duties pursuant to the IEEPA. CAPE is a new ACE functionality that will streamline and consolidate refunds and interest payments for entries subject to the IEEPA duties, rather than issuing entry-by-entry refunds. This message provides further details for Phase 1 of CAPE, which is scheduled to deploy 8 a.m. ET on April 20. CBP said this message also provides additional information on protests, Post Summary Corrections and Automated Clearinghouse payments.
CBP will issue further guidance as additional CAPE functionalities are developed. CBP said it will maintain all information on IEEPA Refunds and CAPE at the IEEPA Duty Refunds page on CBP.gov.
