On March 12, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) provided an update to the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) regarding its progress in developing new functionality within the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) to process IEEPA-related duty refunds.
The update was provided to CIT Judge Robert Eaton through a filing submitted by Brandon Lord, Executive Director of Trade Programs in CBP’s Office of Trade.
The new ACE functionality will be called the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE). This system is being developed to support the submission, review, and processing of refund requests related to duties imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The CAPE Claim Portal will be a web-based interface within the ACE Portal. Once operational, a new tab will appear in both importer and customs broker ACE Portal accounts, allowing users to submit refund requests—referred to as a “CAPE Declaration.”
This portal will serve as the entry point for importers and customs brokers to submit claims for the refund of applicable IEEPA duties.
As of March 11, CBP estimates that development of the Claim Portal component is approximately 70% complete.
According to CBP, the user interface has already been developed, and the agency is currently building automated validation programming that will:
Validate submitted CAPE Declarations
Identify potential errors
Provide feedback to the filer regarding validation issues
CBP is designing CAPE with four integrated components, each responsible for different parts of the refund process:
• Claim Portal
• Mass Processing
• Review and Liquidation/Reliquidation
• Refund Processing
“These components reflect both how CBP anticipates refund requests will proceed through CAPE and how CBP is structuring its development efforts,” Lord explained in the filing.
The Mass Processing component will automatically remove any applicable IEEPA HTS numbers from entry summaries that have been validated through the CAPE Claim Portal.
Once the IEEPA tariff numbers are removed, the system will run ACE duty calculation validations to recalculate the entry.
As of March 11, CBP estimates that development of this component is approximately 40% complete.
Current development efforts are focused on:
Automated entry summary updates
Related ACE validation procedures
The CAPE system will also initiate the review and liquidation or reliquidation process for entries included in an accepted CAPE Declaration.
Under the system design:
Entries will automatically be scheduled for liquidation or reliquidation after a specified number of days following acceptance of the claim.
This timeframe will allow CBP to conduct manual reviews where necessary.
CBP is also developing additional functionality to help streamline the review process.
According to CBP, the Review and Liquidation/Reliquidation component is approximately 80% complete as of March 11.
The system will process liquidations or reliquidations Monday through Thursday each week.
Once entries reach their scheduled liquidation or reliquidation date, ACE will direct them to a CAPE-specific refund process within the ACE Collections refunds module.
As of March 11, CBP estimates that development of the Refund component is approximately 60% complete.
CBP has already completed development of the refund processing functionality within the ACE Collections framework and is currently conducting performance testing of the CAPE refund consolidation process.
Additional development will continue over the coming weeks to further integrate this component with the other CAPE modules.
CBP stated that the first phase of CAPE development is expected to handle the majority of formal and informal entries on which IEEPA duties were paid.
However, certain entries will not initially be eligible for automated processing, including:
Entries subject to antidumping (AD) or countervailing duties (CVD)
Entries with ACE liquidation status listed as
Suspended
Extended
Under Review
Certain entry types such as:
Warehouse withdrawals
Entries designated on drawback claims
Other specialized entry categories
CBP indicated that additional guidance will be issued as the system continues to develop.
The CAPE system represents CBP’s effort to streamline the administration of IEEPA-related duty refunds through ACE. Once operational, the system is expected to allow importers and customs brokers to submit refund claims electronically through their ACE Portal accounts.
CBP has indicated that further guidance and instructions for users will be provided as each phase of the CAPE system is implemented.
The information above is provided for general informational purposes only. Final eligibility for refunds, liquidation adjustments, and ACE processing remains subject to U.S. Customs and Border Protection review and final determination.
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