US to launch centralized tariff refunds via CAPE on April 20

The Trump-era tariff refunds program will roll out with CAPE, a centralized system that will issue electronic refunds for roughly $166 billion in tariffs the Supreme Court ruled unlawful under the IEEPA. CBP says the initial phase will consolidate refunds into a single payment with interest rather than processing by entry. As of April 9, about 56,497 importers had completed the process for roughly $127 billion in refunds; rollout will be phased, with consideration given to handling a subset of entries tied to $2.9 billion in tariffs manually to avoid overburdening trade operations. The refunds follow litigation in the Court of International Trade, and some smaller importers have warned the cost may exceed benefits.