Importers Prep for Monday Opening of Tariff Refund Portal

Importers are preparing to file claims Monday (April 20) for refunds of tariffs, but are not certain what to expect, Reuters reported Friday (April 17).

The federal government is set to launch a new system for handling the claims process on Monday, according to the report.

Some importers are concerned that the new system may crash as thousands of applicants rush to use it, and that the government is making the process difficult by requiring applicants to input information that the government already has on file, the report said.

Importers are also worried that the government could resume its legal battle to allow the collection of tariffs, and that importers are uncertain whether to keep the refunds for themselves or pass them along to their customers, per the report.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in an April 10 bulletin that the new system for the claims process, the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) tool, will be launched in phases, with the first phase starting Monday. Later phases will add more functionality for more complicated scenarios, according to the bulletin.

CBP issued another bulletin Monday (April 13), adding information about protests, post-summary correctionsand ACH payments.

It was reported Tuesday (April 14) that the federal government said that on Monday it will be able to start accepting refund claims for $127 billion of the $166 billion it collected in tariffs that were later invalidated by the Supreme Court in February.

A Court of International Trade judge ordered the government to file a report by April 28 detailing its progress on processing refund claims.

The government said in a court filing that as of April 9, 56,497 importers had completed the process to receive refunds that collectively total $127 billion. Court documents show that more than 330,000 importers paid tariffs.

This process was set in motion in February, when the Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Power Act (IEEPA) does not authorize a president to impose tariffs.

In early March, the Court of International Trade ordered CBP to begin the process of refunding to importers the money it collected in tariffs that were later determined to be illegal.