It may take up to 45 days to review and process tariff refund payments once a new claims portal system becomes operational, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on March 31.

CBP said in a court filing that it is developing a new claims portal within its existing Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system so that it can provide importers with refunds of duties that U.S. President Donald Trump imposed last year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

That new claims system will be called the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE), and will allow importers to file claims so that CBP can process, review, and issue refunds.

It may take up to 45 days to begin reviewing and issuing refunds once CAPE is operational, CBP said.

As of March 30, the claim portal component of CAPE is 85 percent complete, and the mass processing portion is 60 percent complete, wrote Brandon Lord, the CBP official who issued the court filing on Tuesday.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that the tariff regime Trump imposed early last year under IEEPA—including a trove of reciprocal, blanket, and sectoral levies—was unlawful under federal law.

Trump had invoked IEEPA when he declared a national trade emergency and levied sweeping duties on nearly every U.S. trading partner.

He has since issued new tariffs under section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, but they are set to expire on July 24.

The Trump administration has also initiated trade investigations under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act and Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act.

The president’s 2025 tariff regime triggered a tit-for-tat trade war with China last year, during which Beijing and Washington increased tariffs beyond 100 percent before a deal was reached months later.

A group of 12 states led by Oregon sued the Trump administration in the U.S. Court of International Trade last year, before the case reached the Supreme Court.

Now the U.S. Court of International Trade is overseeing the process of issuing tariff refunds to importers who paid duties under the president’s previous tariff regime.

CBP’s new claims and review system will allow hundreds of thousands of importers who paid tariffs under Trump’s previous tariff regime to submit refund applications without needing to sue for reimbursement.

The agency had previously indicated it was trying to get the system up and running by April.

“CBP continues to issue messaging to the trade community to inform it of the new electronic refund requirement and provide information about how to complete the process to receive electronic refunds,” Lord wrote in Tuesday’s filing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.