CUSTOMS COMPLIANCE | 2026-05-28

IEEPA Tariff Refunds Through the CBP CAPE Portal: What California Importers Must Do to Recover Their Share of $166 Billion (May 2026)

After the Supreme Court invalidated IEEPA-based tariffs, Customs and Border Protection opened the CAPE refund system inside the ACE portal. Here is how California importers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach can secure their refunds with interest.

In February 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose import tariffs, invalidating the IEEPA-based duties that had been collected on imported goods. That single ruling triggered the largest customs refund program in the history of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Roughly 330,000 importers had paid or deposited an estimated $166 billion in IEEPA duties across more than 53 million entries, and nearly all of

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