NEW YORK, April 1 — US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said yesterday that applications for refunds of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) could take up to 45 days to review and process, following a ruling that the measure was unlawful.
In a filing to the US Court of International Trade, the agency provided an update on the Consolidated ACE Processing Environment (CAPE) system, which was developed to handle refunds of customs duties collected under IEEPA.
The filing said the system comprises four components: a claims portal, bulk processing, review and liquidation, and refund issuance. It added that the claims portal is 85 per cent complete, bulk processing 60 per cent complete, review and liquidation 80 per cent complete, and the refund component 75 per cent complete.
CBP said that unless there are eligibility issues requiring further examination, applications would take no more than 45 days to process.
It also noted that 26,664 importers, representing 78 per cent of entries where IEEPA duties or bond payments were made, have completed the process required to receive electronic refunds.
For these entries, the principal amount of customs duties paid or deposited is about US$120 billion (RM480 billion), it added.
In a separate filing previously submitted to the same court, CBP said duties collected and expected to be collected under IEEPA totalled about US$166 billion (RM664 billion) as of March 4.
The US Supreme Court ruled on February 20 that IEEPA, which was used to implement the tariffs, does not grant the president authority to impose such measures.
Following the ruling, thousands of companies filed lawsuits against the US administration seeking refunds of the duties paid.
