The US government wants to deploy a system within 45 days to meet the demands of US President
Donald Trump imposed and declared illegal Customs duties to repay. This is shown in a court letter from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Executive Director Brandon Lord on Friday. The new system is intended to simplify the reimbursement of customs duties, it says.
A court ruled on Wednesday that the customs authority must reimburse importers for tariffs already paid by Trump as part of a “Liberation Day” which he proclaimed
imposed on numerous countries around the world almost a year ago. The highest court in the US had these tariffs already considered illegal on February 20th.
It’s more than $166 billion
It’s about large sums of money. According to the court letter, as of March 4, around 330,000 companies had paid more than $166 billion in tariffs on imports that would now have to be reimbursed. Companies like FedEx and L’Oreal had sued. The authority requires only a few documents from importers for repayment, Lord said in the court paper.
Lord said that under the current system, it is estimated that more than 4.4 million man-hours would be needed to complete refunds. It is not feasible to assign all employees to this process alone, as the authority would then no longer be able to adequately fulfill its other duties.
The responsible judge at the International Trade Court in New York announced that he wanted to give the customs authority time to introduce the new system. The prospect of an official repayment system should reassure importers who had feared a lengthy process.