A court declaration filed by the Trump administration has revealed that Customs and Border Protection overstated its tariff refunds by at least $10 billion.
The agency announced Tuesday that it had certified $20.6 billion in tariff refunds to U.S. importers that filed claims through its newly launched web portal. It is the first major wave of reimbursements processed since the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs President Donald Trump imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) earlier this year.
However, a new government declaration filed with the U.S. Court of International Trade highlighted a significant miscalculation in the sums. CBP stated that the value of refunds processed at the start of the program was far lower than reported in earlier updates to the court, according to a Bloomberg report.
Two weeks ago, a U.S. trade official said the administration was issuing more than $35.5 billion to importers.
However, that figure “was overstated by approximately $10 billion,” according to Brandon Lord, executive director of trade programs for CBP’s Office of Trade, with the actual figure closer to $25 billion.
The claims were submitted through a new web platform called the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) system, which launched last month. The system was created inside the wider customs filing platform used for import entries.
“This was not a reflection of any error in CAPE (Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries) processing or refunds, but rather was the result of an inadvertent error in the data query used to calculate the figure,” Lord said, noting that around $64 billion in potential and certified refunds have been approved for processing
CBP estimates total refunds could reach $85 billion. The payments include interest on duties paid across more than 8 million import entries.
The refund process traces back to a Supreme Court ruling in February that held that the use of IEEPA to impose Trump’s tariffs was illegal.
The Court determined that the White House had exceeded its delegated powers, as the Constitution explicitly assigns tariff authority to Congress.
That created a legal obligation to refund duties that had been collected under what turned out to be an unconstitutional framework. This included recalculating entries and refunding money to all eligible importers, not just those that had gone to court to fight the changes.
The refund program is being monitored by the trade court, which has instructed CBP to provide regular updates as the billions are sent to importers.
Tuesday’s filing also stated that more than 4,000 consolidated refund payments remain in limbo as importers have yet to establish their digital payment capability.
