9/19/26 — CAPE Phase 3 Opens October 6 for CIT Plaintiffs

U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Phase 3 of the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) system remains scheduled to open on Monday, October 6, 2026. Phase 3 will be the first CAPE functionality to reach finally liquidated entries, but the opening is limited to a defined group of Court of International Trade plaintiffs. As of publication, CBP has not issued a CSMS message setting out Phase 3 filing instructions. We will report on any such guidance and on the October 6 launch.

If your company is not yet a plaintiff, and wishes access to the Phase 3 refunds, please feel free to contact us.

Who can file on October 6. In a declaration filed with the Court of International Trade on September 15, 2026, Brandon Lord, Executive Director of CBP's Trade Programs Directorate, stated that "Plaintiffs who submitted a valid importer of record number to CBP by July 30, 2026, will be able to file CAPE declarations for Phase 3 as of October 6, 2026." Phase 3 covers finally liquidated entries filed by those plaintiffs for which the court has ordered reliquidation. Those orders trace to the reliquidation orders Judge Richard K. Eaton began issuing on July 15, 2026, which supplied CBP the legal authority to refund IEEPA duties on finally liquidated entries of importers that had filed refund actions.

Phase 3 will not provide refunds to non-litigants. The government has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit the portion of the trade court's ruling that would require refunds on finally liquidated entries for importers that did not file suit, arguing that such relief amounts to an impermissible universal injunction under Trump v. CASA, Inc. That appeal remains pending.