U.S. Customs and Border Protection will provide refunds for defunct Trump administration tariffs only after entries have liquidated, according to a Tuesday filing with the Court of International Trade.
The agency said that while its in-development system for providing the returns will remove International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs on eligible entries, those duties won't be refunded until liquidation.
CBP estimates that there will be an up to 45-day window between when an entry is accepted by the new system and when liquidation, and thus refund delivery, is completed. The agency also said it would accept entries liquidated in the previous 80 days and reliquidate by the 90th day.
As previously outlined, as part of its Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system, importers will request refunds through a dedicated claims portal as part of a four-step process. Development of this first stage of the system is 85% complete, according to Tuesday’s filing.
Meanwhile, the remaining components are between 60% and 80% complete, marking incremental progress from CBP’s last update filed earlier this month.
The mass processing step of the system continues to be the laggard at 60% complete. In recent weeks, CBP has developed new capabilities for this part of the system, including the ability to modify entry summaries and enhancements to entry history tracking functions. The agency is also finalizing development of a validation capability.
CBP is on track to begin accepting CAPE declarations by April 20, per a Wednesday filing from the Court of International Trade. The court ordered the agency to provide another update on CAPE’s development by April 14.
CBP also outlined an expanded list of entries CAPE will accept within its initial rollout. These include those labeled “suspended,” “extended” or “under review,” as well as warehouse withdrawals. The agency said it does not anticipate any delays in development from this expansion.
However, the agency said that the currently planned iteration of the mass processing function is only being developed to handle unliquidated entries, in keeping with a previous order from the Court of International Trade. On Friday, the court amended the order, directing CBP to also cover finally liquidated entries within its refund process.
CBP said it plans to expand CAPE’s capabilities to include finally liquidated entries in subsequent phases of development after the system launches. The current system would cover roughly 63% of entries that paid IEEPA tariffs, according to Tuesday’s filing. In its subsequent filing, the Court of International Trade encouraged importers “to be aware of the remedies available,” namely protests to customs decisions.
Along with the ability to process finally liquidated entries, CBP plans to develop other new capabilities within CAPE in future development phases, including enhanced compliance, validation, financial reporting and security tools.
In Tuesday’s filing, CBP also reiterated that all refunds will be delivered electronically, with limited exceptions, noting that nearly 27,000 importers have registered for digital returns. Those importers account for 78% of entries with IEEPA tariff payments, accounting for roughly $120 billion, according to the agency.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to provide information from an April 1 order from the Court of International Trade. It previously was updated to clarify that CBP estimates it will take up to 45 days to deliver refunds.
