By: Brian Walczyk, Compliance Manager, TradeInsights, LCB, CCS

Today, March 6, the CIT suspended its order instructing US CBP to immediately begin paying refunds for tariffs imposed under IEEPA.

The order comes after a conference held earlier in the day where US CBP outlined some of the difficulties in immediately meeting the order.

US CBP official Brandon Lord’s comments discussed the practical difficulties in applying with the order on such an immediate notice, and that CBP is considering a system that would automatically issue refunds that could be ready in 45 days.

The process may include the following steps:

• The importer filing a declaration in ACE including a list of entries that had IEEPA duties paid.
• ACE runs a series of validations.
• CBP verifies the declaration and processes refunds.
• ACE automatically finalizes the entries.
• ACE automatically aggregates the refunds with interest by importer and liquidation date.
• CBP certifies the refunds.
• Treasury issues IEEPA refunds electronically.

It is important that importers audit their ACE data, and entries, as US CBP’s recommendation does indicate they will review information for any missed revenue. Importers will need to confirm they are set up in ACE for ACH Refunds in their ACE account.

With the case now before the CIT we will continue to watch for developments on the exact mechanisms the court will deem appropriate for seeking IEEPA tariff refunds. Please contact your V. Alexander account team, or you may also contact our Trade Compliance team at tradeinsights@valexander.com with any questions, and you can always follow us on our website www.valexander.com for updates on this and other topics.