The U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced on Friday that importers seeking refunds of customs duties will be able to start submitting their applications starting April 20. In the initial phase, the Customs and Border Protection's 'Unified Filings Management and Processing' tool will handle paperwork for some simple and modern import data, while leaving the more complex ones for a later time. This step is part of the U.S. administration's efforts to comply with a Supreme Court decision issued last February, which canceled the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump using his emergency powers. Under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, these tariffs covered over 53 million import entries, which could become the largest government payout in U.S. history. In March last year, the U.S. International Trade Commission ordered the return of up to $170 billion, plus interest, paid by about 330,000 importers. Since then, Customs and Border Protection has been providing updates to the court on how the order will be processed.
