CBP's CAPE System Launches April 20: What Chinese-Goods Importers Need to Know About Phase 1 Exclusions
- Jeff Chang
- 7 hours ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 7 hours ago
For importers of Chinese goods, CBP's new CAPE refund system launches at 8 AM EDT on April 20, 2026. Under CAPE Phase 1, Chinese goods importers will find that some entries are processed cleanly while others fall outside the Phase 1 process entirely. Determining which entries fall on which side of that line is a question worth working through before the portal opens, since once a CAPE Declaration is accepted it cannot be amended.
CBP's own filings with the Court of International Trade estimate that Phase 1 will process roughly 63% of entries on which IEEPA duties were paid. The remaining ~37% fall into categories CBP has expressly excluded from Phase 1. Several of those exclusions land harder on importers of Chinese goods than on importers from anywhere else, which means the "refunds start April 20" framing is too optimistic for a meaningful slice of entries held by China-sourcing importers.
CAPE Phase 1 Exclusions That Hit Chinese-Goods Importers Hardest
CBP's guidance lists eight categories of entries that Phase 1 will not accept. Four of them are where Chinese-goods importers tend to get caught:
AD/CVD entries with pending liquidation instructions. Phase 1 excludes entries subject to antidumping or countervailing duties for which the Department of Commerce has issued liquidation instructions and that are pending liquidation under 19 U.S.C. § 1504(d). China sits in a category by itself on AD/CVD exposure. Furniture, solar cells and modules, steel and aluminum products, tires, chemicals, hardware, kitchen cabinets, and dozens of other product lines carry active AD/CVD orders on Chinese-origin goods. If any of your products are in AD/CVD-subject categories, a portion of your entries may fall into this exclusion.
Type 09 Reconciliation Summary entries. If your entries were flagged for reconciliation, which is common in transfer-pricing arrangements between U.S. importers and their Chinese affiliates or suppliers, they are out of Phase 1.
Entries subject to drawback claims. Many importers of Chinese goods re-export finished products or components and claim drawback. If you have already filed a drawback claim on an entry that also carried IEEPA duties, that entry is excluded from Phase 1. CBP has indicated that CAPE Declarations should be filed before drawback claims on the same entries, which does not help importers who have already filed.
Entries covered by an open protest. Many Chinese-goods importers filed protective protests in 2025 to preserve their IEEPA refund rights. Those protests now exclude the affected entries from Phase 1 unless withdrawn. CBP permits withdrawal for entries within 80 days of liquidation, and suspended protests require an additional step to remove the suspension first. Entries outside the 80-day window remain in limbo.
The Stacking Problem
Any single exclusion is a manageable issue. The reason China importers need to look at this carefully is that the exclusions stack.
A representative fact pattern: a mid-size importer sourcing both AD/CVD-subject products and non-AD/CVD products from China, filed protective protests on a tranche of entries in mid-2025 to preserve rights, uses reconciliation for transfer-priced intercompany entries, and has some older entries that have already liquidated and are now more than 80 days out. That importer is looking at four different Phase 1 exclusions operating on different subsets of the same book of entries.
Sorting out which entries go into Phase 1, which need a protest withdrawal, which need a protest filed to preserve rights before the 180-day deadline, and which are waiting for an undefined future phase of CAPE is not an exercise that resolves itself.
The Parts That Do Not Come Back Even in Phase 1
It is also worth recalling what is not refundable at all, since this shapes the real economics of any refund claim. Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods, which range from 7.5% to 100% depending on product category, remain in effect. Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper, and their derivatives also remain in effect. The Supreme Court's February 20, 2026 ruling addressed only the IEEPA portion of what importers were paying.
For a Chinese-goods importer whose total tariff load was a mix of Section 301, Section 232, AD/CVD, and IEEPA, the refundable slice is the IEEPA slice only. Separating that slice from the rest requires entry-level analysis of the HTS Chapter 99 classifications on each entry.
What This Looks Like in Practice
For a Chinese-goods importer trying to figure out where to start, the honest answer is that the right approach depends on what your entries look like. A few questions are worth working through:
How many of your IEEPA-affected entries are in AD/CVD-subject product categories, and of those, how many have liquidation instructions already issued? Are any of your entries flagged for reconciliation, and if so, how are the reconciliation adjustments expected to interact with an IEEPA refund? Did you file protective protests in 2025, and if so, on which entries, and are any of them suspended? How many of your entries have already liquidated, and how many are past the 80-day CAPE window but still within the 180-day protest deadline?
These are not rhetorical questions. The answers determine whether your April 20 filing covers 90% of your IEEPA exposure or 40% of it, and whether you have protest deadlines running that need to be protected before a later CAPE phase opens.
Working Alongside Your Broker
Most importers already have a customs broker running their day-to-day entry filings, and for the entries that fit cleanly inside Phase 1, the broker is often well-positioned to pull the ACE data, prepare the CSV, and file the CAPE Declaration. That part of the work is mechanical and it sits in the broker's ordinary scope.
The pieces that tend to sit outside that scope are the ones above the entry-filing layer. These are strategic and legal questions rather than filing logistics: deciding which entries to protest and when, coordinating protest withdrawals with CAPE timing, evaluating whether a Court of International Trade filing is appropriate for entries that Phase 1 does not reach, and resolving contractual questions about who is entitled to the refund when the importer of record and the economic bearer of the tariff are different entities.
A useful division of labor is often for the broker to handle the CAPE filings and the ACH and account mechanics, while counsel handles the exclusion analysis, protest strategy, any CIT filing that is appropriate, and the contractual side. The two roles work better together than either does alone.
Why the First Filing Matters
CBP's guidance makes one rule very clear: once a CAPE Declaration is accepted, it cannot be amended. Entries can only appear on one accepted declaration, and there is no built-in mechanism to withdraw, correct, or supplement a declaration after it goes through. If an importer submits a declaration and it is accepted with problematic data, the result is not a "try again" situation. It is locked in.
This matters in two directions. The first is obvious: rejected entries are recoverable, but an accepted declaration with entries that should not have been on it is not. Once an ineligible or mistakenly categorized entry is on an accepted declaration, that submission slot is used. The second is subtler: for importers with a large book of entries, the question of which entries to group on which declaration, and in what order, affects how the refunds are consolidated, how the 60 to 90 day clock runs for each batch, and how the overall cash-flow picture looks over the refund window.
The volume of entries a China-sourcing importer typically has, combined with the Phase 1 exclusion complexity discussed above, means the first CAPE Declaration is not a routine administrative filing. Batching strategy, eligibility triage, and review before submission are where the work is. Getting that work right once is less costly than managing the downstream consequences of an accepted declaration with errors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does CAPE Phase 1 cover all of my IEEPA-affected entries?
Probably not all of them. Phase 1 covers unliquidated entries, entries liquidated within 80 days of the CAPE Declaration submission date, and certain warehouse and suspended-liquidation entries. Entries in reconciliation, drawback, under open protest, subject to certain AD/CVD liquidation instructions, or more than 80 days past liquidation are excluded. How much of your exposure falls inside Phase 1 is an entry-by-entry analysis.
If my Chinese-origin products are subject to antidumping or countervailing duties, am I excluded from Phase 1?
Not automatically. The exclusion applies to AD/CVD entries where Commerce has issued liquidation instructions and the entries are pending liquidation under 19 U.S.C. § 1504(d). Other AD/CVD entries may still be eligible. The analysis is entry-specific.
I filed a protective protest in 2025. What happens now?
It depends on when the underlying entry liquidated. If it liquidated within 80 days of your planned CAPE submission date, the protest can be withdrawn to allow the entry into Phase 1. If the protest is suspended, the suspension generally has to be removed first. For entries beyond the 80-day window, the protest is currently the mechanism in place, and CBP has not published guidance on how later CAPE phases will interact with pending protests.
My entries are older and already liquidated. What are my options?
This is where the analysis gets most fact-specific. Phase 1 does not reach entries with final liquidation or liquidation more than 80 days old. Depending on how long ago the entry liquidated, a protest under 19 U.S.C. § 1514 may still be available, or a filing at the Court of International Trade may be appropriate. Protest deadlines run on their own schedule regardless of when later CAPE phases open.
How much of the tariffs I paid on Chinese goods is actually refundable?
The IEEPA portion only. Section 301 tariffs (7.5% to 100%), Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper and derivatives, and any AD/CVD duties were not affected by the Supreme Court ruling. Isolating the refundable portion requires entry-level review of the HTS Chapter 99 classifications.
Can my customs broker handle the refund claim, or do I need an attorney?
Often both, for different parts of the work. Brokers are well-positioned to run the Phase 1 CAPE filings on entries that are clearly eligible, manage the ACE and ACH mechanics, and monitor refund status. Counsel is typically more useful for the strategic layer: identifying which entries are excluded and why, coordinating protest filings and withdrawals with CAPE timing, evaluating whether a Court of International Trade filing is appropriate for entries Phase 1 does not reach, and resolving contractual questions about who receives the refund. The two roles complement each other rather than overlap.
Can I fix errors in a CAPE Declaration after it has been accepted?
No. CBP's guidance is clear that accepted CAPE Declarations cannot be amended. Each entry can only appear on one accepted declaration. Errors caught before acceptance, including entry-level rejections, can be corrected and resubmitted on a new declaration. Errors that make it into an accepted declaration are generally locked in. This makes the review step before submission materially more important than it would be in processes that allow amendments.
About Chang Law Group
Chang Law Group represents importers and businesses engaged in various business matters, including U.S.-Asia trade. Attorney Jeff Chang is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of International Trade, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and Massachusetts state courts. The firm assists clients with IEEPA tariff refund claims, customs disputes, and cross-border commercial matters.
If you import from China and are working through what the CAPE Phase 1 and excluded-entry picture looks like for your business, including whether a Court of International Trade filing is appropriate for any of your entries, contact Chang Law Group for a consultation. We work alongside importers' customs brokers on the strategic and legal pieces of the refund picture.
Contact:
Phone: (617) 307-1238
Email: info@jchanglaw.com
WeChat: ChangLawGroupLLC
Chang Law Group LLC: One Marina Park Drive, Suite 1410, Boston, MA 02210
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. The IEEPA tariff refund process involves rapidly evolving legal and administrative developments, and the information above reflects the state of affairs as of the publication date. It may not reflect subsequent court rulings, regulatory changes, or government actions. Importers should consult with Chang Law Group regarding their specific circumstances before taking any action based on this information.