$166B tariff refunds

The U.S. is building a system to return up to $166 billion in tariff payments after the Supreme Court struck down broad import duties collected since February 2025. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) In a court filing on April 1, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said its new refund portal and processing system was 60% to 85% complete and could take up to 45 days to review claims. The agency said it plans to accept applications in phases, starting with recently liquidated entries and shipments whose status is suspended, extended or under review. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) Court records cited in that filing say more than 330,000 importers paid the tariffs on 53 million shipments, and 26,664 importers had already completed the setup needed for electronic refunds. Those importers account for 78% of the entries that paid duties or deposits under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, totaling about $120 billion. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The money at issue comes from tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a national-emergency law that the administration used for some of its broadest 2025 trade actions. The Supreme Court left the refund mechanics to the U.S. Court of International Trade, which is now pushing Customs to build a workable claims process. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) At the same time, companies are trying to head off another tariff fight under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the law the U.S. uses to answer what it says are unfair foreign trade practices. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer opened new Section 301 investigations on March 11 into “structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors,” with comments due April 15 and hearings set to begin April 28 in Washington. (ustr.gov, ustr.gov, ustr.gov) That overlap is why the story is getting attention inside corporate trade departments: one arm of the government is preparing to repay old duties while another is collecting testimony on possible new ones. Reuters reported that large importers including FedEx had already sued to protect their refund rights, while other companies worried the filing burden could cost more than smaller claims are worth. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) Section 301 is not new. The current China tariff structure traces back to an investigation launched in 2017, and the Biden administration kept those duties in place after a four-year review in 2024, while raising rates on selected strategic goods and creating limited exclusion processes for some machinery and solar equipment. (ustr.gov, ustr.gov, ustr.gov) USTR has also kept using Section 301 in newer cases, including its April 17, 2025 action on China’s maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors. That action followed a year-long investigation, nearly 600 public comments and a two-phase remedy structure that delayed some fees for 180 days and some vessel restrictions for three years. (ustr.gov) What happens next is procedural but expensive: Customs still has to open the refund portal and process claims, and USTR still has to decide whether its new 2026 Section 301 investigations end in fresh duties. For importers, that means the next few weeks are about paperwork on the old tariffs and lobbying on the next round. (economictimes.indiatimes.com, ustr.gov)