CAPE Testing Begins: CBP's Refund Portal Advances

Brandon Lord's third declaration to the Court of International Trade, filed March 19, 2026, reveals that CBP has moved beyond development into active testing of the CAPE system. The Claim Portal is now 73 percent complete, up from 70 percent on March 12, and CBP reports it is substantially developed with testing underway on completed capabilities. Mass Processing has advanced to 45 percent with two new functions under development: ACE validations that ensure automated entry summary updates process correctly, and event history tracking that records new events as entries move through CAPE. The Review and Liquidation component holds at 80 percent, with testing of liquidation and reliquidation functions now in progress but dependent on upstream components.

The Refund component has reached 63 percent, with refund consolidation functionality under active testing — refunds will be grouped by liquidation or reliquidation date and importer of record, or by a designated third party via CBP Form 4811. Phase 1 exclusions remain unchanged: entries subject to antidumping or countervailing duties where Commerce has instructed suspended liquidation, entries with ACE status of suspended, extended, or under review, warehouse withdrawals, foreign trade zone entries, and drawback claims. The ACE validations function will now automatically flag these entries during Mass Processing. ACH enrollment remains mandatory for all refunds.

CBP stopped issuing paper checks on February 6, 2026. TariffClaim helps importers prepare by connecting to ACE, identifying IEEPA-affected entries, calculating duty exposure, and generating CAPE-ready filing data.