The US Court of International Trade offered temporary relief to the Donald Trump administration on Friday (US time) by suspending a previous order that pressed US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “to the extent that it directs immediate compliance” on tariff refunds, according to a new Reuters report.
This comes after the CBP reiterated on Friday that it could not immediately start issuing tariff refunds, which amount to about $166 billion, as per a recent filing by the Trump administration. In the official documents filed this week, CBP said that its existing “administrative procedures and technology” were not suited to immediately comply with Judge Richard Eaton’s previous order on the IEEPA tariffs. The US Supreme Court ruled those duties illegal last month.
Eaton has been designated as the only Court of International Trade judge slated to hear dozens of lawsuits from importers seeking refunds on Trump’s reciprocal tariffs following the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in February in the case Learning Resources Inc v Trump.
The US judge’s previous March 5 order directed CBP to start paying importers using its existing systems to compensate all importers affected by the “illegal” tariffs, not just those who filed lawsuits against the Trump admin. However, the US Customs agency has since asserted in its new filing that it was preparing a system that would be able to process the hefty tariff refunds without requiring importers to sue.
When will the Trump admin process tariff refunds?
In its new filing, CBP suggested that it could begin issuing refunds by late April after reworking its existing technology to comply with the fresh developments at hand.
As of Wednesday, more than 330,000 importers have made a total of over 53 million entries “in which they have deposited or paid duties imposed pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act,” Brandon Lord, executive director of the trade programs directorate at CBP’s Office of Trade, said in the filing.
CBP to revamp existing tech to facilitate tariff refunds
CBP further insisted that it was “confident” about developing and implementing new functions in its Automated Commercial Environment, which is the system of record for imported merchandise. By doing so, CBP states that the system will “streamline and consolidate refunds and interest payments on an importer basis,” instead of processing more than 54 million separate refunds.
The agency affirmed that it was making efforts to have the new “ACE functionality ready for use in 45 days.” It also noted that the new changes in the system would save the agency’s employees over 4 million hours of work.
As the agency faces an “unprecedented volume of refunds,” the filing confirmed that as of March 4, the Trump government owes approximately $166 billion in tariff refunds, without interest. The figure was similar to what Wharton Penn had previously estimated.