Overview
- Customs and Border Protection told the trade court it is building an ACE-based claims portal and mass-processing system, reporting the portal 70% complete, mass processing 40%, review 80%, and refund workflows 60%, with a phased rollout.
- Judge Richard Eaton said the government is making satisfactory progress toward issuing refunds with interest and ordered another status update on March 19.
- CBP estimates roughly $166 billion in IEEPA duties are owed to about 330,000 importers across tens of millions of entries, and it has said manual processing would require millions of labor hours without new automation.
- More than 2,000 companies have filed refund suits in the Court of International Trade, while separate challenges target the administration’s replacement tariffs under other statutes.
- Consumers are suing retailers and shippers, including a new Illinois class action against Costco and a similar Florida case against FedEx, to ensure companies do not keep refunds tied to costs that were passed through to shoppers; brokers are also offering to buy refund rights at up to 60% of face value.