US tariff refund system to be ready in 45 days, after Trump duties struck down

The US ⁠customs agency is readying a system within 45 days to process refunds on President Donald Trump’s tariffs that were struck down as illegal, a customs official said in a court filing on Friday.

The declaration by Customs and Border Protection official Brandon Lord came just before government lawyers met with a federal trade judge to try to hammer out a broad settlement process for returning US$166 billion in tariff ‌payments to around 330,000 importers.

Last month, the US Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the tariffs that were a central part of Trump’s economic policy. The court did not say how the collected tariffs should be refunded, leaving small importers worried the process would be expensive and time-consuming.

“This new process will require minimal submission from importers,” Lord said in his declaration, filed with the US Court of International Trade as government lawyers began meeting with Judge Richard Eaton from the court.

Eaton called the meeting to discuss how the government will carry out his sweeping order, issued on Wednesday, directing the CBP to begin refunding tariffs to potentially hundreds of thousands ⁠of importers using the agency’s existing internal process.

On Friday, after concluding the meeting with the government lawyers, he said in a court filing he was amending that order to no ‌longer require “immediate compliance” and appeared to be giving CBP time to carry out the new system. Eaton said he changed his order after considering the “declaration of Brandon Lord”.