US Customs and Border Protection has put a date on the last and most contested stage of the tariff refund program that has been reshaping retail balance sheets all year. In a declaration filed with the US Court of International Trade on September 15, 2026, Brandon Lord, CBP’s Executive Director of Trade Programs, said the agency will deploy Phase 3 of its Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system, known as CAPE, on October 6, 2026. The filing was reported by the customs brokerage GHY and by the trade-law blog SmarTrade on September 16, and MLex has reported the same date.
Phase 3 is the tranche that covers “finally liquidated” entries: import transactions closed so long ago that CBP says it cannot reopen them without a court order. Those are the entries that fell outside the first two phases, and they are the ones that matter most to importers whose shipments cleared customs in the early months of the IEEPA tariffs in 2025. For retailers, brand owners and the e-commerce sellers who import their own inventory, the date converts a legal abstraction into a filing deadline with real cash attached.
The catch is who gets to use it. According to the declaration, Phase 3 will accept declarations only from plaintiffs, meaning importers of record that have their own case pending before the trade court and for which the court has ordered reliquidation. Importers that never sued remain in a holding pattern that depends on the government’s appeal to the Federal Circuit. This article sets out what October 6 opens, who qualifies, how the numbers have moved since the summer, and what the retail sector should expect once the third phase starts paying out.
In short
- The date: CBP will deploy CAPE Phase 3 on October 6, 2026, per a September 15 declaration filed with the Court of International Trade by CBP’s Executive Director of Trade Programs, Brandon Lord.
- What it covers: finally liquidated entries on which IEEPA duties were paid, limited to plaintiffs whose entries the court has ordered CBP to reliquidate under its July 17 order.
- Who can file first: plaintiffs that submitted a valid importer of record number to CBP by July 30, 2026; later submitters will receive separate instructions.
- The money so far: as of September 11, CBP had accepted about $134.7 billion in potential and certified refunds, with roughly $122 billion sent to Treasury for payment, and $1.3 billion across 20,184 refunds stuck for missing bank details.
- Retail stakes: the biggest chains have already booked Phase 1 and 2 money (Walmart alone about $2.9 billion); Phase 3 is where mid-sized importers and 2025 early-season inventory finally get paid, and where the non-litigant question stays open.
What exactly did CBP tell the trade court on September 15?
The September 15 declaration is a status report to the Court of International Trade, which has supervised the refund program through a series of orders, including the July 17 reliquidation order entered in In Re Tariffs Collected in Reliance on IEEPA, No. 26-00219. According to GHY’s summary of the filing, the declaration does three things. It confirms a launch date for Phase 3, it sets out who may file when that phase opens, and it updates the running tallies for declarations, entries and dollars processed through the first two phases.
On the launch itself, the filing says CBP “will deploy CAPE Phase 3 on October 6, 2026” and that the phase “will cover finally liquidated entries filed by plaintiffs for which the US Court of International Trade has ordered reliquidation.” Plaintiffs that submitted a valid importer of record number to CBP by July 30, 2026 can file Phase 3 declarations beginning October 6. CBP said it will provide additional instructions to plaintiffs that submitted their importer number after that date.
The filing also restates a point that has become important for reconciliation filers: the functionality CBP deployed on June 29, 2026 lets importers and brokers include reconciliation-flagged entries (entry types 01, 02 and 06) in their CAPE declarations where the reconciliation entry itself has not been filed. That was the substance of Phase 2, and the declaration confirms it remains live rather than being superseded by the October release.
Why a court declaration rather than a press release
CBP has run the refund program largely through court filings and Cargo Systems Messaging Service notices rather than through conventional announcements. That reflects the origin of the program. The Supreme Court’s February decision in Learning Resources held the IEEPA tariffs unlawful, and the trade court then ordered CBP to refund the duties. Every subsequent step, including the phase structure of CAPE, has been reported back to the court as compliance with those orders. The September 15 declaration is the latest installment in that sequence, and it is why the October 6 date carries more weight than a target floated in a webinar: it is a representation made to a federal judge.
Why does Phase 3 matter more than Phases 1 and 2?
The three phases of CAPE track the legal status of an import entry rather than the size of the refund. Phase 1, which opened April 20, 2026, accepted entries that were unliquidated or no more than 80 days past liquidation. Phase 2, which opened June 29, added reconciliation-flagged entries within the same window. Both phases stayed inside the period in which CBP can reliquidate an entry on its own authority, which runs 90 days from liquidation.
Phase 3 is different in kind. It reaches entries that are finally liquidated, meaning more than 90 days have passed since CBP closed them, and CBP’s position throughout the program has been that it cannot touch those entries without a court order. The trade court supplied that order on July 17, 2026, directing CBP to “reliquidate, without regard to IEEPA duties, any and all of Plaintiffs’ entries that have been liquidated for more than 80 days and on which Plaintiffs made estimated deposits pursuant to IEEPA,” according to the order as quoted by the law firm Snell & Wilmer. The court said it would enter that order in each of the roughly 3,700 IEEPA cases before it.
For retailers the distinction maps onto the calendar. Entries from the first wave of IEEPA tariffs in early 2025 liquidated on the normal 314-day cycle and passed the 90-day mark long before CAPE opened in April 2026. Those are precisely the entries that carried the highest cumulative duty for importers who front-loaded inventory ahead of the tariff escalation. The cash that Walmart, Target and Costco have already reported came largely from newer, unliquidated entries in Phases 1 and 2. Phase 3 is where the older money sits, and it is why our earlier coverage of the congressional letter on the 90-day refund window flagged the missing Phase 3 date as the single biggest open item in the program.
How liquidation timing decides which phase an entry falls into
The customs process gives each of the three phases its boundary. According to a client alert from the law firm Amundsen Davis, an importer pays estimated duties at entry, CBP generally liquidates the entry within 314 days of import, CBP may voluntarily reliquidate within 90 days of liquidation, and after 90 days the entry is deemed finally liquidated. At 180 days after liquidation all matters relating to the entry are deemed settled. An entry’s position on that timeline on the day a CAPE phase opens determines whether it can be filed in that phase, which is why the delay in Phase 3 mattered: every week without a date pushed more entries past the 90-day line and into the court-ordered bucket.
| CAPE phase | Opened | Entries covered | Who may file | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | April 20, 2026 | Unliquidated entries and entries no more than 80 days past liquidation; AD/CVD entries excluded initially | Any importer of record or the broker that filed the entry | CBP’s own 90-day reliquidation authority |
| Phase 2 | June 29, 2026 | Same window, plus reconciliation-flagged entries (types 01, 02, 06) where no type 09 reconciliation entry has been filed | Any importer of record or filing broker | CBP’s own 90-day reliquidation authority |
| Phase 3 | October 6, 2026 | Finally liquidated entries (more than 80 days past liquidation) on which IEEPA duties were deposited | Plaintiffs with a pending CIT case; IOR number submitted by July 30 files first | CIT order of July 17, 2026 directing reliquidation |
Who is allowed to file on October 6, and who is left out?
The eligibility rule in the declaration is narrow and deliberate. Phase 3 covers entries “filed by plaintiffs for which the US Court of International Trade has ordered reliquidation.” In practice that means an importer must have its own case on the trade court’s docket, and the July 17 reliquidation order must have been entered in that case. The court said it would enter the order across all of the roughly 3,700 IEEPA cases, so most litigants should be covered, but the operative condition is the case, not the entry.
Within the plaintiff group there is a second gate. CBP asked plaintiffs’ counsel over the summer to submit importer of record numbers so the agency could validate identities before Phase 3. Plaintiffs that submitted a valid number by July 30, 2026 are the ones who can file from October 6. Those who submitted later will get “additional instructions,” which in CBP’s vocabulary usually means a later window. Retailers whose trade counsel handled the July submission are therefore in the first cohort; those that joined litigation after mid-summer should expect a lag.
The group left out entirely is the non-litigant importer with finally liquidated entries. Whether those companies ever receive Phase 3 money depends on the government’s appeal, which we cover below. The trade bar has been blunt about the consequence. Snell & Wilmer’s July analysis said importers “who have not yet filed suit in the CIT to preserve their individualized claims for IEEPA tariff refunds may therefore risk losing their refunds entirely if the Administration succeeds in its appeal.” Amundsen Davis put the choice in similar terms: file a CIT action, or wait for the appeal.
The retail profile of the excluded group
The companies most exposed to the non-litigant gap are not the national chains. Large retailers filed protective suits early and in bulk; for a company with a nine-figure refund claim the cost of a protective suit was trivial. The exposure sits with mid-sized importers, direct-to-consumer brands that import finished goods, and marketplace sellers who act as importer of record for their own inventory. Many of them assumed, reasonably in early 2026, that a Supreme Court ruling meant a universal refund. The government’s appeal is the argument that it did not, at least for entries that were already final.
How much has been refunded so far, and how fast is it moving?
The September 15 declaration gives the most current picture of CAPE’s throughput. As of 3 p.m. Eastern on September 11, 2026, CBP had received 286,044 CAPE declarations, of which 201,293 passed file validation. The declarations that passed covered 27.2 million entries. Of those, 19.94 million entries had been liquidated or reliquidated without IEEPA duties, which is the outcome that generates a refund. Another 6.1 million entries failed entry-level validation.
On the money, CBP said it had accepted approximately $134.7 billion in potential and certified refunds for processing through CAPE. Approximately $122 billion in refunds, including duties and interest, had been completed, certified and sent to the Treasury for disbursement. The gap between those two figures, roughly $12.7 billion, is refund value still working through CAPE’s review and reliquidation component.
The pace can be read from the previous checkpoints. At the Phase 2 stage in July, CBP reported about $121.75 billion accepted and $86.3 billion sent to Treasury, per Snell & Wilmer’s summary of the agency’s filing at the time. By August 21, the figures in the declaration cited in our September coverage were $132.5 billion accepted and $106.6 billion sent. By September 11 they had reached $134.7 billion and $122 billion. The accepted figure has nearly plateaued, which is what one would expect with Phases 1 and 2 mature, while the transmitted figure is still rising by well over $15 billion a month as CBP clears its review queue.
| CBP checkpoint | Accepted for processing | Sent to Treasury | Refunds held for missing ACH data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 2 stage (July 2026) | about $121.75 billion | $86.3 billion | 9,837 refunds |
| August 21, 2026 | $132.5 billion | $106.6 billion | not stated in the summary |
| September 11, 2026 | about $134.7 billion | about $122 billion | 20,184 refunds, about $1.3 billion |
The bank-details problem has doubled
One figure in the declaration has moved in the wrong direction. As of September 11, 20,184 refunds totaling approximately $1.3 billion had not been transmitted to Treasury because the importer of record, or its authorized CBP Form 4811 designee, had not provided ACH account information. In July the equivalent count was 9,837. The program has therefore processed more refunds than it can pay, and the bottleneck is an administrative form rather than a legal question. For a retailer or seller expecting a refund, confirming ACH enrollment in the ACE portal is the single cheapest action available before October 6.
Why did 6.1 million entries fail validation?
The declaration lists the main reasons entries were rejected at the entry level, and the list is a map of where Phase 3 will pick up. The first reason is that the entry date exceeded CBP’s 90-day reliquidation authority: in other words, the entry was finally liquidated and belonged in Phase 3, not Phases 1 or 2. The second is that the entry lacked a Chapter 99 Harmonized Tariff Schedule number, the classification used to assess IEEPA duties, which means CBP could not confirm that IEEPA duty was actually paid on it. The third is that the entry had already been filed on a previous CAPE declaration.
File-level failures had a different profile. The declaration attributes them mainly to importer of record or filer mismatches, incorrect or nonexistent entry numbers, and CSV files that did not match the ACE Portal template. Of 286,044 declarations, 84,751 failed at that stage, a rejection rate of just under 30%. That is high for a bulk filing system and it explains why customs brokers have been advising clients to have a specialist prepare the CSV rather than export it from an ERP and hope.
The 90-day failures are the ones with a remedy on October 6. An importer that filed a finally liquidated entry in Phase 1 or 2 and saw it rejected has not lost the claim; it has been told to wait for the phase that can process it. But the remedy is only available to plaintiffs. An importer without a CIT case whose entries were rejected on the 90-day ground has, for now, nowhere to refile.
What is the government’s Federal Circuit appeal, and can it stop Phase 3?
The appeal is the shadow over the whole third phase. On June 3, 2026 the government filed notices of appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit challenging the trade court’s orders to the extent they require refunds to importers who did not file their own suits. The government’s argument, drawn from the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. CASA, is that the trade court cannot grant universal relief to non-parties and that CBP has no authority to reliquidate a finally liquidated entry without an individual court order.
The important point for October 6 is what the appeal does not touch. The July 17 reliquidation order applies to plaintiffs in the roughly 3,700 pending cases, and Phase 3 is built to serve only those plaintiffs. The government has not argued that plaintiffs are ineligible; its position is that they are the only ones who are eligible for finally liquidated entries. Phase 3 as designed is therefore consistent with the government’s own theory of the case, which is why CBP could commit to a date while the appeal is pending. Whether Phase 3 ever expands to non-litigants is the question the Federal Circuit will decide, Oral argument was reportedly scheduled for August 19, according to trade counsel tracking the case, and no decision had been reported as of this writing.
The three-category framework behind the dispute
Trade counsel have described the government’s position as a three-category framework, per analysis from Foley & Lardner and Holland & Knight. Unliquidated entries get refunds through CAPE without a suit. Finally liquidated entries with a CIT suit get refunds through Phase 3 under the July 17 order. Finally liquidated entries without a suit are the contested category, and the appeal exists to keep that category closed. Sheppard Mullin’s analysis characterized CBP’s stance as a reversal from an earlier posture in which universal refunds were expected. Readers following the parallel challenge to the replacement tariffs will recognize the same court: the trade court also hears the Section 301 forced-labor tariff cases on September 30, six days before Phase 3 opens.
What does October 6 mean for retailers and e-commerce sellers?
The refund program has been the largest single swing factor in US retail earnings this year, and Phase 3 changes its shape rather than its direction. Walmart has reported roughly $2.9 billion in IEEPA refunds, the largest disclosed figure among retailers, according to reporting compiled by Marketplace and Forbes. Apple has reported about $2.2 billion. Target and Nike have each reported close to $1 billion. Costco has said it will return $800 million of its recoveries to members through lower prices, per Axios, and told investors it had received roughly a third of its expected refunds heading into its fiscal Q4 report on September 24. Macy’s disclosed $116 million.
Those figures came overwhelmingly from Phases 1 and 2, because the large chains import continuously and always have a deep book of unliquidated entries. Phase 3 will add the older tranche for the same companies, and it will be the first meaningful payout for the mid-sized importers who lacked unliquidated entries when CAPE opened. The analysis in our earlier piece on how refunds are feeding into shelf prices and core goods CPI assumed a second wave of cash landing in the fourth quarter; the October 6 date makes that wave concrete, though its size depends on how quickly CBP moves plaintiffs’ finally liquidated entries through review.
The calendar overlap is worth noting. October 6 is also the first day of Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, and it falls three weeks before most retailers lock holiday pricing. A refund received in October is margin that can be spent on promotion in November. That timing helps explain why the trade groups have been so focused on the Phase 3 date rather than on the aggregate total.
| Company | Disclosed IEEPA refund | Stated use | Source of figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walmart | about $2.9 billion | Lower prices and better value, per company statements | Marketplace, Forbes |
| Apple | about $2.2 billion | Not specified as a consumer program | Marketplace |
| Target | close to $1 billion | Value and price investment, per company statements | Star Tribune, Forbes |
| Nike | close to $1 billion | Not specified as a consumer program | Marketplace |
| Costco | about a third of expected total received | $800 million returned to members through prices | Axios, company statements |
| Macy’s | $116 million | Not specified | Company disclosure |
| FedEx, UPS, DHL | Not disclosed in aggregate | Direct refunds to customers explicitly charged duties | ConsumerAffairs |
Who is passing the money on, and who is not
Consumer coverage from ABC News and ConsumerAffairs in mid-September has been skeptical about how much of the refund reaches shoppers. The general pattern reported is a three-way split between the retailer, its suppliers and consumers, with the carriers the exception because they billed duties explicitly and can reverse the charge line by line. Costco faces a class action seeking direct refunds to members, per Fortune’s earlier reporting. The Phase 3 money will be subject to the same debate, but with one difference: much of it will go to smaller importers who sell through marketplaces, where price competition tends to pass savings through faster than a national chain’s planogram does.
What should an importer do before October 6?
The practical checklist for the next three weeks follows directly from the failure modes in the declaration. First, confirm litigation status. An importer that is not a plaintiff cannot file in Phase 3, and if its finally liquidated entries carry material duty, its counsel should assess whether filing a protective action at the trade court is still worthwhile given the appeal. Second, confirm that the importer of record number was submitted to CBP by July 30; if it was not, expect a later window and watch for CBP’s follow-up instructions.
Third, fix the bank details. With $1.3 billion held for missing ACH information, an importer that has not enrolled ACH refund banking in the ACE Secure Data Portal will see its Phase 3 refund join that queue. CBP launched a web-based ACE account application on April 1, 2026 to streamline setup, and the ACH enrollment is a separate step inside the portal. Fourth, pull the entry list now. Phase 3 declarations require the same CSV template as earlier phases, and the 30% file rejection rate says the template is unforgiving. Identify every entry liquidated more than 80 days ago that carried a Chapter 99 IEEPA classification, and reconcile entry numbers against ACE before the portal opens.
Fifth, decide who files. Only the importer of record or the licensed customs broker that filed the original entries can submit a CAPE declaration. Retailers that changed brokers during 2025 will need the former broker’s cooperation or will need to file as importer of record themselves. Our earlier reporting on CBP’s expanding import disclosure demands is relevant here: the agency’s validation of importer identity has tightened across programs, and a mismatch between the CAPE filer and the ACE account holder is one of the top file-level rejection reasons.
What happens after October 6?
The declaration does not give a completion target for Phase 3, and the volume argues against a fast one. Phase 3 is not a new pool of importers so much as a new pool of entries for existing plaintiffs, and each entry must be reliquidated under a court order rather than under CBP’s own authority. GHY’s summary notes that CBP continues to “review and finalize outstanding potential refunds” through CAPE’s review and reliquidation component, which is the step that has kept roughly $12.7 billion of accepted refunds short of Treasury even for the earlier phases.
Three developments will shape the fourth quarter. The first is the Federal Circuit’s schedule on the universal relief appeal; a decision for the government would close the non-litigant category permanently, while a decision against it would force CBP to design a Phase 4 for importers with no case. The second is congressional pressure. The September 9 letter from ten House members to Commissioner Rodney Scott focused on portal account approvals that outran the 90-day window; with a Phase 3 date now set, the same members are likely to ask whether the 90-day clock should be tolled for importers whose accounts were pending. The third is the trade court’s own docket. With roughly 3,700 IEEPA cases and a September 30 hearing on the replacement Section 301 tariffs, the court is managing both the refund of one tariff regime and the challenge to its successor at the same time.
For the retail sector the through-line is simple. The refund program that produced a one-off margin windfall in the second quarter now has a defined final stage, and the money it releases in the fourth quarter will land in the middle of holiday pricing decisions. The importers who set up litigation, submitted their importer numbers by July 30 and enrolled ACH will be paid first. Everyone else is waiting on a court in Washington.
Frequently asked questions
What is CAPE Phase 3?
CAPE Phase 3 is the third release of CBP’s Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system for IEEPA tariff refunds. It covers finally liquidated entries, meaning entries closed more than 80 days ago, which CBP says it cannot reliquidate without a court order. CBP told the Court of International Trade on September 15, 2026 that Phase 3 will deploy on October 6, 2026.
Who can file a Phase 3 declaration on October 6?
Only plaintiffs: importers of record with a case pending before the Court of International Trade in which the court has ordered reliquidation under its July 17, 2026 order. Within that group, plaintiffs that submitted a valid importer of record number to CBP by July 30, 2026 can file from October 6; later submitters will receive separate instructions from CBP.
Can an importer that never sued get a Phase 3 refund?
Not under the current design. The government has appealed to the Federal Circuit against universal refunds for non-litigants with finally liquidated entries, and Phase 3 serves plaintiffs only. Trade counsel at Snell & Wilmer and Amundsen Davis have advised that importers without a CIT case risk losing refunds on finally liquidated entries if the government prevails, and that filing suit remains the way to preserve the claim.
How much has CBP refunded so far?
As of September 11, 2026, CBP had accepted approximately $134.7 billion in potential and certified IEEPA refunds for processing, and approximately $122 billion including interest had been completed, certified and sent to Treasury for disbursement, according to the September 15 declaration as summarized by GHY.
Why are some refunds stuck?
As of September 11, 20,184 refunds worth about $1.3 billion had not been transmitted to Treasury because the importer of record or its Form 4811 designee had not provided ACH bank account information. The count has roughly doubled from 9,837 in July. Enrolling ACH refund details in the ACE portal releases the payment.
What is the difference between liquidated and finally liquidated?
CBP generally liquidates an entry within 314 days of import, fixing the duty owed. It can voluntarily reliquidate within 90 days after that. Once 90 days pass, the entry is finally liquidated and CBP treats it as closed absent a court order. Phases 1 and 2 of CAPE handled entries inside that window; Phase 3 handles entries outside it.
Why did so many CAPE entries fail validation?
Of 27.2 million entries on declarations that passed file checks, 6.1 million failed entry-level validation. The main reasons were that the entry date exceeded CBP’s 90-day reliquidation authority, the entry lacked the Chapter 99 HTS number used to assess IEEPA duties, or the entry had already been filed on a previous declaration. Roughly 30% of declaration files also failed at the file level, mainly for importer or filer mismatches and template errors.
How does Phase 3 affect retail prices?
Phase 3 releases refunds on the oldest IEEPA entries, mostly from early 2025, and the cash will arrive in the fourth quarter as retailers finalize holiday pricing. Large chains such as Walmart, Target and Costco have said earlier refunds are going into lower prices; consumer reporting suggests the money is generally split among the retailer, suppliers and shoppers. Smaller marketplace importers receiving Phase 3 money tend to pass savings through faster because of price competition.
Does the October 6 date depend on the Federal Circuit appeal?
No. Phase 3 is limited to plaintiffs covered by the July 17 reliquidation order, which the government has not challenged. The appeal concerns non-litigants. A ruling for the government would keep Phase 3 as the final stage; a ruling against it would require CBP to build a further phase for importers without a court case.