CBP argues it can’t comply with court order on tariff refunds

March 6 (UPI) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection told a judge Friday that it can’t comply with his order to begin refunding tariffs that the Supreme Court ruled illegal.

On Wednesday, the Court of International Trade ordered the department to begin reimbursing the importers who paid the tariffs created by President Donal Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Axios reported. The Supreme Court determined Fe. 21 that he didn’t have the power to do so under that law.

On Friday, Customs and Border Protection’s Brandon Lord, executive director of Trade Programs at the agency, told the court in a filing that it’s now facing “an unprecedented volume of refunds.”

The filing said that as of March 4, more than 330,000 importers have made more than “53 million entries in which they have deposited or paid duties imposed pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.” That adds up to $166 billion.

The agency cited its technology, processes and manpower requirements as reasons it could not immediately comply with the order issued by international trade Judge Richard Eaton.

Lord wrote, “Existing administrative procedures and technology are not well-suited to a task of this scale and will require manual work that will prevent personnel from fully carrying out the agency’s trade enforcement mission.

“Personnel would be redirected from responsibilities that serve to mitigate imminent threats to national security and economic security.”

He said the agency should be able to begin issuing refunds in 45 days after updating its computer technology.

“Customs knows how to do this,” Eaton said during a court hearing Wednesday, CNBC reported. “They do it every day. They liquidate entries and make refunds.”

In the agency’s current computer system, individual records created for shipments crossing the border “liquidate” or expire, making finding those entries more difficult, the filing said.

“Currently, it is not possible for CBP to immediately prevent any additional entries from liquidating without IEEPA duties,” Lord wrote.

Many companies have filed suit against the government demanding refunds for tariffs paid under the IEEPA, including Costco, which filed its own suit, and a group of about 50 other companies represented by Crowell & Morning.