Customs and Border Protection will open the Centralized Application Processing Environment — CAPE — on April 20, creating the mechanism through which importers can apply for refunds on IEEPA tariffs the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional [1].

The estimated refund pool is $150 billion to $175 billion, accumulated from tariff payments made between the emergency orders' issuance and the Court's March ruling [1]. No government repayment program of this scale has been attempted in US history.

CAPE will accept applications through a CSV entry-list upload system, with automated recalculations and direct electronic disbursement [1]. CBP has built the portal under intense pressure — the Court of International Trade ordered universal refunds in early March, and CBP spent six weeks building the infrastructure to comply.

The timing is pointed. April 20 is the same day FISA Section 702 authorization expires — a coincidence of legislative and judicial calendars that the administration did not arrange and cannot be pleased about. Two defining confrontations between executive power and its legal limits land on the same date.

For importers, the practical advice from customs lawyers is straightforward: file early, file with documentation, and do not assume the refund is final. Ongoing litigation in the Court of International Trade could modify disbursement for importers who did not file protective claims at the time of payment [1].

The refunds will flow primarily to manufacturers and retailers who paid tariffs on Chinese-origin goods. Agricultural importers, auto-parts suppliers, and electronics companies are the largest cohorts.

-- HENDRIK VAN DER BERG, Brussels