We just received a summary of the hearing today on the IEEPA tariff refund from our Toasts Not Tariffs Coalition leadership as follows:
Today, the Department of Justice filed a declaration with the Court of International Trade (CIT) regarding its proposal for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to implement a refund process through its electronic single window, the Automated Commercial Environment. However, it remains unclear whether the CIT will be satisfied with the proposed refund plan.
In the declaration, CBP noted that it cannot comply with the CIT’s March 4th order requiring liquidation of affected entries without the IEEPA duties because ACE is not capable of processing the refunds at scale. Accordingly, CBP said it would need approximately 45 days to build new operational processes to issue the refunds.
CBP also noted the refunds would not be automatic as it lacks the capacity to identify and repay every qualifying shipment. Thus, it would require importers to file claims that CBP would then validate and process.
The core elements of the proposal are:
- Each importer of record files a declaration in ACE that includes a complete list of entries on which IEEPA duties were paid
- ACE validates that each entry has IEEPA duties and recalculates the entry without IEEPA
- CBP verifies, as soon as practicable, the refund and interest for processing
- ACE then finalizes (liquidates or reliquidates, per the proposal) the entries
- CBP then certifies the refunds
- Treasury electronically transfers refunds and interest to the importer
If the CIT accepts the proposal and it is implemented, it remains unclear how quickly CBP could process requests.
