US prepares system to refund Trump's tariffs

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is preparing a new system to refund tariffs imposed during President Donald Trump's administration that the US Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional last month. According to a court filing by CBP official Brandon Lord, the system should be ready within 45 days.

The statement came ahead of a meeting between government lawyers and Federal Judge Richard Eaton of the US Court of International Trade. They discussed how to implement the decision, which orders the start of the process of refunding tariffs to approximately 330,000 importers. According to estimates, they paid a total of about $166 billion.

The Supreme Court overturned the tariffs, which were a key part of Trump's economic policy but did not specify a procedure for their refund. This raised concerns that the process could be lengthy and costly for companies.

Under the CBP proposal, importers would submit declarations of duties paid through the agency’s electronic system, known as ACE. After verifying the data, the Treasury Department would make a single lump-sum payment to each importer, including interest.

Lord also said the agency’s existing systems are not designed to process such a large volume of data. Importers paid duties on more than 53 million shipments and manually verifying the documentation would require more than four million hours of work, he said.

(reuters, max)