CBP opens tariff refund process for U.S. companies

U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Monday opened up the refund process for American companies to get back money they lost from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The new Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE, process was created after the U.S. Supreme Court found Trump’s tariffs to be illegal earlier this year.

How will importers be able to get their refunds through this process? U.S. companies can request refunds by uploading one or more CAPE Declarations. Those submissions take the form of a comma-separated file, known as a CSV file, through CBP’s Automated Commercial Environmental Secure Data Portal. CBP will then review those submissions to determine if they’re eligible for refunds and to calculate the amount of money the agency needs to refund each entity. Companies can generally expect to receive their refunds within 60-90 days of submitting their CAPE Declarations, CBP said.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta and Lauren Smyth’s report on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling about Trump’s tariffs.