The Trump administration told a federal court this week that it plans to launch its system for issuing tariff refunds on Monday, two months after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.
Officials at Customs and Border Protection told Judge Richard Eaton, of the U.S. Court of International Trade, that they are “on track” to launch the first phase of the refund system on Monday. The Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system will process refunds of duties imposed by the administration under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which the Supreme Court struck down 6-3 on Feb. 20.
The CAPE system set to be launched by CBP will give importers one consolidated payment, with interest, rather than refunds for each individual item’s IEEPA duty. Eaton noted in an order discussing what happened at the closed-door conference that the CAPE system would be open to all importers affected by the IEEPA tariffs, not just those who have not filed claims to the Court of International Trade.
In a filing to the federal court on Tuesday, Brandon Lord, director for the Trade Programs Directorate at the CBP Office of Trade, said 56,497 importers have already completed the process to receive refunds for IEEPA duties imposed on their products, for a total of roughly $127 billion in refunds if all those importers use the CAPE tool launching next week.
Eaton ordered the government to offer another update to the court about its refund process for the IEEPA tariffs by April 28, continuing the regular updates he has demanded from the administration on how it has worked to complete the refunds.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WILL ALLOW COMPANIES TO APPLY FOR TARIFF REFUNDS
While the Trump administration works to provide refunds for the sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs the Supreme Court rejected earlier this year, the administration faces continued lawsuits over tariffs it has attempted to implement under other authorities after that adverse ruling by the high court.
Last week in the Court of International Trade, a judge heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by various Democrat-led states over the legality of a different set of sweeping tariffs Trump has implemented using Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act. The law allows Trump to impose duties of up to 15% without congressional approval for 150 days, but the lawsuit argues the president has a “fatally flawed” justification for invoking Section 122 to impose the tariffs.