U.S. to Repay Tariffs! Refunds May Begin in April, Exclusively Through Online Channels

【Ebrun Original】March 9: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has submitted documents to the U.S. Court of International Trade confirming the development of a new refund process, expected to be completed within 45 days. This move aims to refund tariffs previously ruled illegal by the court to hundreds of thousands of affected businesses.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already invalidated the double-digit import tariffs imposed last year by former President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977.

Subsequently, the judge overseeing the tariff litigation at the U.S. Court of International Trade emphasized in the ruling that "all registered importers" are entitled to benefit from the Supreme Court's decision and ordered the government to begin refunding the relevant tariffs and interest.

In the court filing, Brandon Lord, Executive Director of CBP's Trade Policy and Programs Division, stated that to comply with the court's refund order, authorities are urgently developing a new system to streamline operations. Lord noted that this automated system is expected to be ready within 45 days, meaning large-scale tariff refunds could officially begin in late April.

The system is designed to "require minimal information from importers," validate the accuracy of IEEPA tariff refunds and interest calculations, reduce human errors, and allow CBP a review period to resolve discrepancies with importers and confirm that relevant companies have no unresolved enforcement issues or unpaid taxes.

The scale of this refund effort is unprecedented.

According to CBP data, as of March 4, over 330,000 importers have submitted more than 53 million customs declarations, involving approximately $166 billion in tariffs paid.

CBP admitted that processing such a massive volume of refund requests under the existing outdated system would require over 4.4 million work hours.

Lord explained that, given CBP's core missions of protecting tariff revenue and enforcing national security functions, it cannot allocate all manpower to refunds without severely disrupting other operations. Therefore, developing and implementing a simplified, integrated process for principal and interest payments is the only feasible way to ensure refunds proceed.

Importers should note that the tariff refunds will strictly follow a digital path.

Lord explicitly stated in the filing that, as of February 6, CBP now issues refunds exclusively electronically, discontinuing traditional channels.

However, registration progress is concerning: among the 330,566 importers involved, only 21,423 have set up electronic refund accounts, accounting for less than 7%.

CBP warned that refund applications will be rejected if importers fail to complete their electronic refund account setup.

Although the refund process still requires final approval from the judge, CBP is confident that the new system will enable a smooth implementation of tariff refunds.

Ebrun will continue tracking this development. For more related information, please scan the QR code to follow the author on WeChat.