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Article: The Trump administration says it can’t process tariff refunds because of computer problems

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6 / 10

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection states it cannot currently process billions of dollars in tariff refunds, citing that its digital import system is ill-suited for the massive scale of the task. This follows a Supreme Court ruling striking down the tariffs and a subsequent trade court order mandating refunds with interest, which could total around $166 billion.

Major companies, including Nintendo and Costco, have sued the government for these refunds. The CBP claims its existing system would require over 4.4 million hours to process the refunds but is confident it can launch a more efficient system within 45 days.

The main topics covered are the CBP's inability to process refunds due to technological limitations, the legal rulings invalidating the tariffs and ordering refunds, the estimated scale of the duties collected, and the lawsuits filed by impacted companies.

Original URL

https://www.theverge.com/policy/890904/trump-administration-cbp-tariff-refunds-technology-issues

Source Feed

The Verge

Published Date

2026-03-06 20:17

Fetched Date

2026-03-06 17:30

Processed Date

2026-03-06 17:31

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Present

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Raw Extracted Content

The US Customs and Border Protection says it currently can’t comply with an order to process billions of dollars in refunds stemming from tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. In a filing on Friday, CBP executive director Brandon Lord says the agency’s digital import processing system is “not well suited to a task of this scale,” as reported earlier by CNBC.
The Trump administration says it can’t process tariff refunds because of computer problems
The CBP says it could have a more efficient system up and running in 45 days.
The CBP says it could have a more efficient system up and running in 45 days.
The CBP’s admission comes after the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs imposed by Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) last month. This week, the International Trade Court ruled that importers impacted by the tariffs are entitled to refunds with interest. The CBP estimates that it collected around $166 billion in IEEPA duties as of March 4th, 2026.
Companies like Nintendo, FedEx, and Costco have filed lawsuits against the US government in the International Trade Court, demanding refunds for the tariffs that the Supreme Court has deemed “illegal.”
The CBP says it currently processes imports through its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system. In the filing, Lord says that using the department’s existing technology, it would take more than 4.4 million hours to process refunds for the over 53.2 million entries with IEEPA duties. Despite these current limitations, the CBP says it’s “confident” it can develop and launch new capabilities to “streamline and consolidate refunds and interest payments on an importer basis” — but this could take 45 days.
“The process will be simpler and more efficient than the existing functionalities, and CBP will provide guidance on how to file refund declarations in the new system,” Lord says.