CBP: Refund of Trump Tariffs to Take Up to 45 Days

New York - The application for refunds of import duties related to the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, which were annulled by the Supreme Court, could take up to 45 days to be reviewed and processed, according to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

In a filing to the US Court of International Trade, CBP provided an update on the status of the Consolidated ACE Processing Environment (CAPE) system for refunds of duties collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

The system consists of four components: claims portal, bulk processing, review and liquidation, and issuance of refunds.

It was stated that the claims portal is 85 per cent complete, bulk processing 60 per cent, review and liquidation 80 per cent, and the refund issuance component 75 per cent.

Unless there are eligibility issues requiring further examination, the review and refund process can be completed in no more than 45 days, CBP said.

A total of 26,664 importers, representing 78 per cent of IEEPA duty or bond imports, have completed the process to receive electronic refunds.

The principal value of duties paid or deposited for those imports amounts to approximately $120 billion (around Rp2,040 trillion).

In a previous separate filing, CBP stated that the total duties collected and estimated to be collected under IEEPA amount to approximately $166 billion as of 4 March.

The US Supreme Court ruled on 20 February that IEEPA did not give the president authority to impose tariffs.

Following that decision, thousands of companies have sued the US government to demand refunds of duties already paid.