The Customs and Border Protection is in for a few busy months.
Over the past weeks, the CBP’s new online system for refunding tariffs paid under the IEEPA has drawn 26,664 registrations as of March 26, as officials race to return an estimated $166 billion to importers after the Supreme Court ruled the collection of those tariffs illegal in February.
Even though registered importers are now confirmed to be eligible for refunds, CBP is not yet ready to roll them out. According to a new CBP court filing on Tuesday, Brandon Lord, a senior CBP official, said that the main tariff refunds claim portal is now 85% finished and is undergoing “critical testing required before deployment,” while other parts of the system are between 60% to 80% complete.
Based on the filing, Lord said the initial rollout of the portal will cover roughly 63% of the 53 million import entries tied to the Supreme Court ruling, but the remaining claims will take longer.
About one-third of the claims have already undergone a customs process called liquidation, which occurs within a year of an import’s entry and usually makes the associated tariffs permanent. Lord said that these liquidated entries will be handled in later refund phases when more capabilities will come online.
Phase one of the refunds, according to the filing, will be rolled out on time by mid-April, but it remains unclear when liquidated funds will be returned.
The refund effort follows a Supreme Court decision in February that struck down tariffs imposed by the Trump administration nearly a year ago. The ruling prompted the Court of International Trade to order the CBP to begin recalculating duties and issuing refunds. Judge Richard Eaton, who is overseeing the litigation, expanded his ruling on March 27 to clarify that liquidated tariffs are also eligible for reimbursement, following concerns raised by companies.
According to Eaton’s previous ruling, the CBP is also responsible for paying interest on the tariffs it holds, and it estimated the amount at $700 million a month, or $23 million per day, for every day the refunds are delayed.
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