CAPE has processed refunds totalling $132.5 billion; Phase 3 has been delayed and was originally intended for fewer importers than many believed.

On August 25, 2026, CBP submitted its most recent progress report to the Court of International Trade, and the figures indicate that the system is indeed handling a significant volume of traffic. The report also confirms a delay in Phase 3, which is the part of the CAPE that deals with finally liquidated entries. This article examines what the figures reveal, explains why the delay is occurring, and looks at the detail regarding Phase 3 eligibility that is more important than the delay itself.

The numbers as of August 21

By 3 p.m. ET on Friday, August 21, CBP had reported that around 26.4 million entries involving IEEPA duties had been handled by CAPE since the system went live on April 20. This number represents potential and certified refunds totalling $132.5 billion. In addition, a total of 272,029 CAPE declarations have been submitted, of which 191,494 passed file validation, and 18.76 million entries have been liquidated or reliquidated without IEEPA duties; $106.6 billion has already been forwarded to the Treasury for disbursement.

Phase 2, launched on June 29 in order to accept entries that had been flagged for reconciliation but still lacked a reconciliation entry on file, has handled 2.3 million entries by itself, and all of them are now scheduled for further processing.

The $1.7 billion that was left at the door

One figure in the report is worth noting since it refers to a problem that can be solved; during the same period up to August 21, a total of 22,170 refunds amounting to about $1.7 billion have not been sent to the Treasury, the reason being that the importer of record or its authorized CBP Form 4811 designee has not supplied the ACH banking details.

It isn't a matter of processing time or a legal issue; it's a data gap. CBP has the refund prepared for dispatch but is unable to send it since the receiving account has not been registered. All importers who have submitted a CAPE declaration should check that their ACH Refund Authorization is active and correct in the ACE Importer sub-account, as this registration is separate from the ACH account used for paying duties.

Why Phase 3 is delayed

CBP informed CIT that it has temporarily put off the implementation of CAPE Phase 3, stating that this delay is necessary in order to establish new validations which will ensure that no duty adjustments are made to finally liquidated entries apart from the refund provided under the IEEPA. The CBP also mentioned that these validations will take into account the trade community's improper reporting of IEEPA duties on the original entries.

Simply put, CBP is addressing two risks at the same time. The first of these is scope creep, ensuring that a Phase 3 reliquidation only affects the IEEPA duty and doesn't unintentionally lead to the reactivation of other duty calculations for an entry that has already been closed. The second risk is data quality, since it identifies cases in which the original entry's IEEPA reporting was incorrect and would therefore result in an inaccurate refund amount if it were processed without being checked.

CBP made it clear that the delay only affects the upcoming Phase 3, while Phases 1 and 2 remain completely operational and unimpacted.

The detail that matters more than the delay

What most of the coverage of this update is failing to include, and what importers who have at last cleared their entries need to understand clearly, is the following.

Phase 3 was not intended to be open to every importer who had finally liquidated IEEPA entries. By a decision issued on July 17, 2026 by CIT Senior Judge Richard Eaton, the CBP was instructed to reliquidate, without taking into account the IEEPA duties, any entries which had been liquidated for more than 80 days, but only in the case of the plaintiffs among the approximately 3,700 IEEPA cases that had already been consolidated before the court. This order required the plaintiffs to first provide CBP with certain information, including their importer of record numbers, before a CAPE declaration for their finally liquidated entries could be accepted.

This point reflects a stance that the Department of Justice has taken throughout the current litigation. Throughout the case, the DOJ has maintained that the Customs Bureau does not have statutory power to carry out reliquidations of entries outside of the normal 90-day period after liquidation during which voluntary reliquidation may be done, unless a court issues an order directing it to do so in respect of particular plaintiffs. In its filing of June 4, 2026, the DOJ clearly stated that Congress has not granted the Customs Bureau the authority to pay refunds in respect of entries that have been liquidated and are final, and that in such cases an importer must bring legal action before the CIT and secure an order that is specific to that importer.

The result in practice is important: if you are an importer who has finally had entries liquidated with IEEPA duties and have not brought a lawsuit to the CIT, there is at the moment no established way of reliquidating those entries via CAPE, no matter when Phase 3 ultimately comes into effect. The delay announced this week does not alter that fundamental question of eligibility; it only postpones the timetable for the group which already has the standing to benefit.

Those providing legal advice on this case have been open about the implications. A law firm's comment regarding the July decision made it clear that it is uncertain whether non-plaintiffs will eventually receive refunds of the IEEPA tariffs applied to entries which have already been liquidated, and advised importers who had not yet submitted a claim to the CIT to strongly consider doing so.

What CAPE Phase 3 will require once it deploys

At the time that Phase 3 goes ahead, importer of record numbers will have to be included as part of the submission, a measure which CBP has stated is meant to make sure that refunds go to the right importers and to prevent incorrect payments in cases where verification is more complicated than in Phases 1 and 2. The plaintiffs in the cases in question will have to deal with CBP via their lawyers in order to provide the required information before they can file a CAPE declaration for their finally liquidated entries.

What to do now

Once you have finally got rid of all the entries that have IEEPA duty exposure and have not yet filed with the CIT, you should give serious and immediate consideration to filing a protective lawsuit. It is not something you should put off until Phase 3 is actually put into operation, since it is the question of eligibility—not the question of timing—that decides whether or not your entries will ever be covered.

Should you already be a plaintiff in one of the approximately 3,700 cases that are currently pending, you should keep an eye out for instructions from CBP regarding the submission of the required information, such as your importer of record number, as making that submission will be a necessary step when a CAPE declaration is introduced upon the launch of Phase 3.

If you have completed your CAPE declarations under either Phase 1 or Phase 2 and have not yet received a message confirming that your refund has reached the Treasury, then you should check your ACH Refund Authorization status in the ACE Importer sub-account. Since $1.7 billion is at the moment held back for precisely this reason, this kind of gap is genuinely common and should be dealt with promptly.

We are helping clients assess CAPE status, confirm ACH setup, and think through whether a protective CIT filing makes sense given their specific entry profile. Reach out to your ShipTech account manager for a current review of your situation.