CAPE Phase 3 opens Oct. 6: finally liquidated IEEPA entries — and the surety exclusion

Last verified: October 2, 2026 (PT)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has told the Court of International Trade that Phase 3 of Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) deploys on October 6, 2026. The opening is for CIT plaintiffs with finally liquidated entries covered by court-ordered reliquidation of IEEPA duties — and it keeps a separate question open for customs sureties: entries where a surety paid any IEEPA duty remain outside ordinary CAPE.

What Phase 3 covers

Counsel alerts summarizing CBP’s September 15, 2026 CIT declaration — Thompson Hine and Cherry Bekaert / CBH — align on:

• Launch: October 6, 2026.
• Scope: Finally liquidated entries filed by plaintiffs for which the CIT ordered reliquidation without IEEPA tariffs.
• Day-one filers: Plaintiffs who submitted a valid importer of record (IOR) number to CBP by July 30, 2026. Later IOR submissions await separate CBP instructions.
• Not in this lane (as described): Importers with finally liquidated IEEPA entries who are not CIT plaintiffs with a reliquidation order.

CBP’s IEEPA Duty Refunds page frames CAPE as a phased ACE tool for valid refunds authorized by court order or applicable law. Phases 1–2 covered unliquidated / recently liquidated entries and certain reconciliation flags; Phase 3 is the finally liquidated plaintiff channel.

Surety exclusion from ordinary CAPE

Separate from Phase 3’s plaintiff gate, CBP’s Phase 1 CSMS instruction remains the clearest public filing rule (CSMS #68340863):

That is a filer exclusion, not a published surety-refund workflow inside CAPE.

Traverse Analysis (Sept. 9, 2026) teaches the desk consequence: a partial surety payment still takes the entire entry out of an ordinary entry-number declaration, while 19 C.F.R. § 24.36(b) — when its evidence test is met — certifies a qualifying surety only up to the amount it paid. Bond coverage alone is not the trigger; actual payment after default is.

Pending: A confirmed automated surety-refund path inside CAPE (or a separate ACE module). Prior GG coverage of ITSA’s court posture: ITSA presses CBP on IEEPA refunds for sureties — party claims, not findings.

Desk takeaway

Phase 3 is importer/plaintiff-oriented. It does not, on materials retrieved here, convert surety-paid IEEPA entries into ordinary CAPE candidates. Longer teaching page: Customs surety, IEEPA refunds, and CAPE.

Sources

1. CBP Confirms October 6, 2026 Launch of Phase 3, Thompson Hine, Sept. 16, 2026.
2. CAPE Phase III Set for October 6, Cherry Bekaert (CBH), Sept. 23, 2026.
3. IEEPA Duty Refunds, CBP (retrieved Oct. 2, 2026).
4. CSMS #68340863 (surety-paid exclusion).
5. Surety-Paid Entries Out of CAPE, Traverse Analysis, Sept. 9, 2026.
6. Related: ITSA / IEEPA surety refunds.