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APM Terminals at the Port of Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 4, 2026. REUTERS/Mike Blake
APM Terminals at the Port of Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 4, 2026. REUTERS/Mike Blake
US customs agency says tariff refund system will be ready in 45 days
March 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. customs agency is preparing a system that will be ready to process refunds on illegally collected tariffs in 45 days without requiring importers to sue, a customs official said in a court filing on Friday.
The declaration by Brandon Lord, a top Customs and Border Protection official, came as government lawyers were meeting with a federal trade judge to hammer out a process for returning $166 billion in tariff payments to around 330,000 importers.
The tariffs that were a central part of President Donald Trump’s economic policy were struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court last month. However, the Supreme Court did not say how the collected tariffs should be refunded, worrying small importers that the process would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.
“This new process will require minimal submission from importers,” Lord said in the filing with the U.S. Court for International Trade.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Writing by Ryan Patrick Jones in TorontoEditing by David Ljunggren and Deepa Babington)
