U.S. Begins Processing $166B Tariff Refunds

The U.S. government has begun processing refunds for approximately $166 billion in tariffs collected from more than 330,000 importers on roughly 53 million import entries, following a February U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated the levies imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system, or CAPE, on April 20 to handle claims from importers of record and authorized customs brokers. A court order filed Tuesday in the U.S. Court of International Trade by Judge Richard Eaton set the first repayments to start around May 11. As of April 26, over 75,000 refund requests had been submitted, with about 47,000 accepted, covering roughly 11 million tariff payments. Approximately 15 percent of requests were rejected, often due to failing strict eligibility criteria, such as applying only to finalized duties imposed under the invalidated law.

The Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority by using the 1977 IEEPA, typically reserved for sanctions and asset freezes, to impose broad tariffs rather than Congress-granted import taxes. The...