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$166B in Tariff Refunds Opened This Week — What To Do Now

· 8 min read
WebDialogAI Team

If you've been running an ecommerce business that imports products — especially from China — you paid a lot more in duties last year than you should have. The Supreme Court agreed with you in February. And now, as of this past Monday, you can actually do something about it.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched the CAPE portal on April 20 — a refund system for IEEPA tariffs ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. More than $166 billion in duties is on the table, plus interest. Over 55,000 parties filed claims on day one alone. If you imported goods in 2025 or early 2026, this week is when you need to pay attention.

What Just Happened (The Short Version)​

In February 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that emergency tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were unlawful. Those were the sweeping 2025 tariffs on imports from China and other countries that hit small importers particularly hard — the Center for American Progress found small businesses paid an average of $306,000 in tariffs last year.

The government estimates it owes more than $166 billion back to businesses that paid those duties. On April 20, CBP opened Phase 1 of CAPE (Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries), the official portal for submitting refund claims.

This isn't some settlement fund with a five-year timeline. Valid claims are expected to be processed within 60–90 days.

Who Can Actually File​

Here's the part that's a bit harder to hear: not every business that paid higher costs due to tariffs qualifies to file directly.

You can file if you were the importer of record (IOR). That means your business was the one listed on the customs entry — typically businesses that import directly from overseas manufacturers or distributors. If you filed your own customs entries and paid duties directly to CBP, you can file through the CAPE portal.

You likely can't file directly if you bought from a domestic distributor or third-party importer. If you purchased goods from a US-based supplier who handled the import, that supplier was the importer of record, not you. You may have paid higher wholesale prices that reflected tariff costs, but the refund goes to the IOR, not down the supply chain. Whether any of that flows back to you depends entirely on your supplier's willingness to share it.

There's a middle path worth knowing about, though.

If You Shipped via UPS, FedEx, or DHL​

If you brought goods into the US via UPS, FedEx, or DHL Express — including through international small parcel and express services — your carrier often acted as the importer of record for those shipments and paid duties on your behalf. All three major carriers have announced they're filing CAPE claims and intend to pass refunds back to the customers who originally paid those charges.

That means: if you paid tariff surcharges on international shipments through any of these carriers, contact them directly and ask about their refund process. FedEx, UPS, and DHL have each published guidance on their websites about how they're handling this for customers.

Don't wait for them to reach out to you. The refund pipeline is moving fast and being in queue early matters.

The Part That Makes This Urgent: the 80-Day Window​

Phase 1 of CAPE covers two categories of entries:

  • Unliquidated entries — customs entries that haven't been finalized by CBP yet
  • Entries liquidated within the past 80 days — recently finalized entries

That 80-day window from April 20 means entries liquidated on or after approximately February 1, 2026 are still eligible. Entries liquidated before that? Phase 1 doesn't cover them. CBP has indicated there will be additional phases, but Phase 1 is what's available right now.

If you have entries about to age out of that window, this is genuinely time-sensitive. A customs broker can pull your entry history and tell you which ones qualify in under an hour.

Four Things Worth Doing This Week​

1. Pull your import records from 2025–2026 (~30 minutes)

Log into your ACE portal account if you have one, or ask whoever handles your customs filings for a list of recent entries. You're looking for entries with IEEPA duties paid between 2025 and early 2026. Even a rough sense of what you paid tells you whether this is worth pursuing or whether the amounts are too small to justify the effort.

2. Contact your carrier if you used UPS, FedEx, or DHL (~15 minutes)

Go to each carrier's website and look for their tariff refund or IEEPA refund page. Each has dedicated guidance up now. Register your interest or follow the steps they've outlined for claiming. Don't assume they'll proactively contact every eligible customer — get in queue yourself.

3. Talk to a customs broker before filing on your own (~1 hour call, one-time)

The CAPE system runs through CBP's ACE portal, which is built for customs professionals, not small business owners. The submission is a CSV file called a "CAPE Declaration" listing your entry numbers in the correct format. It's not impossible to do yourself, but a customs broker can pull your entry history, identify which entries qualify, and file accurately. Given the 80-day deadline and the consequences of submitting incorrect entries, paying for a professional review is worth it even if you ultimately file yourself. Your freight forwarder likely has a broker relationship, or search the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association directory.

4. Raise the conversation with your domestic suppliers (~30 minutes)

If you bought from a US distributor who was the importer of record, you have no legal right to a refund — but you can ask. Some suppliers will share refunds with larger accounts, especially while the topic is still in the news. Email or call your main supplier contacts this week. You're not entitled to anything here, but not asking guarantees the answer is no.

The Honest Caveat​

The CAPE portal had reported glitches and access issues on launch day. CBP is processing what will likely be hundreds of thousands of claims. The 60–90 day processing timeline assumes clean submissions — compliance questions or errors extend that.

This isn't a windfall you can bank this month. It's a process that, if you're eligible and file correctly, could return real money 2–3 months out. That's still worth doing.

If the amounts you're potentially recovering are small (under a few thousand dollars), the time and broker fees may not justify the effort. If you paid significant duties on large import volumes, this week is when to start.

One Thing That Doesn't Wait for Refunds​

You can't control the tariff situation, but you can control how well your website converts the visitors already landing on it. While you're sorting out import costs, make sure your checkout experience isn't losing customers to unanswered questions — shipping policies, delivery timelines, return terms. A well-trained AI chat layer answers those questions automatically and passes the conversation to you when something needs a human. One fewer thing bleeding the margin you're already fighting to protect.

Hang in there. See you tomorrow.

WebDialogAI gives your website an AI chat with seamless human handover — answers customer questions instantly, escalates to a real agent when it matters. Get started free or install on Shopify.

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