CBP Sets October 6 for CAPE Phase 3 — But Only Importers Who Sued Get In

The date importers have been waiting on since spring finally has a number attached to it. On September 15, 2026, CBP filed a declaration in the Court of International Trade stating that Phase 3 of its CAPE refund tool will deploy on October 6, 2026. Phase 3 is the piece that reaches "finally liquidated" entries — the older entries where importers paid IEEPA duties and then watched the liquidation window close before any refund mechanism existed.

Here's the catch, and it's a big one: per CBP's own filing, Phase 3 is open only to importers of record who are plaintiffs in a pending CIT case seeking IEEPA refunds. If you never sued, October 6 is not your date.

What Happened

CAPE — Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries — is the ACE Portal pathway CBP built to process IEEPA duty refund claims following court orders. CBP's own Trade Information Notice on CAPE describes it as an electronic route for importers and customs brokers to submit valid IEEPA refund claims by uploading a CSV file through the ACE Portal, with capabilities expanding across multiple phases.

Those phases have rolled out slowly. Phase 1 went live April 20, 2026, covering unliquidated entries and certain entries within 80 days of liquidation. Phase 2 followed on June 29, 2026, extending eligibility to certain reconciliation entries. Both left out the entries that matter most by dollar volume — the 2025-era IEEPA "fentanyl" and "reciprocal" tariff entries that liquidated and went final long before the Supreme Court ruling and the subsequent CIT orders.

Getting to those entries required a court order, because CBP generally loses authority to reopen an entry 90 days after liquidation under 19 U.S.C. § 1501. That order came on July 17, 2026, when CIT Senior Judge Richard Eaton directed CBP to reliquidate, without regard to IEEPA duties, plaintiffs' entries liquidated for more than 80 days on which IEEPA deposits had been made. The order expressly supplied the legal authority CBP said it lacked.

The September 15 filing is the follow-through. In the declaration of Brandon Lord, CBP's Executive Director of Trade Programs, the agency committed to the October 6 go-live and spelled out the eligibility gate: plaintiff status plus a submitted importer of record number. Plaintiffs who got their IOR number to CBP by July 30, 2026 are cleared to start filing on day one.

What It Means for Importers

Practically, the trade splits into three groups right now.

If you sued and submitted your IOR number: You're in the best position of anyone. Your window for finally liquidated entries opens October 6. Your job between now and then is data — pulling a clean list of every entry where IEEPA duties were deposited, confirming liquidation dates, and getting the CSV format right the first time.

If you sued but haven't submitted your IOR number: Talk to your counsel this week. CBP said it will provide instructions for making that submission; the July 30 date in the declaration is an illustration of who's ready for October 6, not necessarily a hard cutoff — but you don't want to be figuring this out on October 7.

If you never filed a case: This is the group that should be paying the closest attention, because CBP's position is that it has no authority to reliquidate or refund your finally liquidated entries absent a court order covering you. The government has appealed the portion of the CIT's order that would require refunds to non-litigating importers, arguing both that CBP cannot reliquidate without a court order and that the CIT lacks authority to grant that kind of universal relief. That appeal is unresolved. Your older entries are sitting on the outcome of it. We wrote about this same fault line when CBP told the court in August it had "temporarily delayed" the expansion, and the pattern we flagged then — litigants moving faster than everyone else — has now hardened into an explicit rule.

One more thing worth repeating: CBP does not email importers individually about refund status. Tracking happens through ACE Reports and the ACE Portal. If you don't have portal access set up, that's a prerequisite, not an optional nicety.

Practical Next Steps

1. Run your IEEPA exposure report now. Every entry, entry date, liquidation date, IEEPA duty amount deposited, and current liquidation status. You cannot file a credible CAPE declaration without it, and the 80-day/90-day distinctions matter line by line.
2. Confirm ACE Portal access and ACH refund enrollment. CBP has been issuing refunds electronically since February 6, 2026, with paper checks only by approved waiver. An unenrolled account is a refund that bounces.
3. Do not withdraw IEEPA-only protests yet. Wait until you have an individual reliquidation order and confirmed Phase 3 eligibility. A withdrawn protest you still needed is an own goal.
4. If you're not a plaintiff, get advice on whether to become one. That's a legal decision, not a brokerage one — but the practical asymmetry between litigants and non-litigants is now documented in CBP's own court filing, and it's not getting smaller.
5. Keep your 5106 data clean. Phase 3 runs on IOR numbers, and CBP began voiding inaccurate IOR records this month. If your Form 5106 is stale, fix it before it collides with a refund claim.

For the broader picture on how these refunds have moved so far, see our earlier coverage of the $100 billion in IEEPA refunds already certified to Treasury and why litigating importers have been getting paid faster. If you want help building your entry-level IEEPA refund file before October 6, reach out to our team.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does CAPE Phase 3 launch?

CBP confirmed in a declaration filed with the Court of International Trade on September 15, 2026 that Phase 3 of the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) system will deploy on October 6, 2026.

Who is eligible to use CAPE Phase 3?

According to CBP's September 15, 2026 declaration, only importers of record that are plaintiffs with a case pending before the Court of International Trade seeking IEEPA tariff refunds may participate in Phase 3. Eligible plaintiffs must also provide CBP with their importer of record number; those who submitted it by July 30, 2026 can begin participating on October 6, 2026.

What entries does CAPE Phase 3 cover that Phases 1 and 2 did not?

CAPE Phase 3 covers entries that have been liquidated for more than 80 days, including "finally liquidated" entries beyond the 90-day reliquidation window in 19 U.S.C. section 1501. Phase 1, which launched April 20, 2026, covered unliquidated entries and certain entries within 80 days of liquidation, and Phase 2, which launched June 29, 2026, added certain reconciliation entries.

Can importers who did not sue still get IEEPA refunds on finally liquidated entries?

Not through CAPE Phase 3 as CBP has structured it. CBP's position is that it has no authority to reliquidate or refund duties on entries liquidated more than 80 days without a court order, and the federal government has appealed the part of the Court of International Trade's order that would extend refunds to non-litigating importers of record. That appeal remains unresolved.