WASHINGTON, March 7 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- The United States (US) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unit reported that approximately US$166 billion in customs duties were collected under tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), Anadolu Ajansi reported.
In a statement submitted by CBP to the US Court of International Trade on Friday, the reasons why the court’s decision to refund the taxes could not be technically implemented immediately were explained.
The statement indicated that the amount of duties collected and expected to be paid under the IEEPA was approximately US$166 billion as of March 4, that more than 330,000 importers had carried out more than 53 million transactions, and that approximately 20.1 million transactions were still pending settlement.
The statement emphasised that it was not possible for CBP to immediately halt new customs transactions conducted without paying IEEPA taxes.
The statement also indicated that CBP does not have the ability to separate IEEPA tariffs from other tariffs in transactions scheduled for termination, and that the unit is facing an unprecedented refund burden, with current procedures and technology proving inadequate for a task of this scale.
The statement further indicated that CBP plans to add a new function to its system to facilitate the process and that work is under way to make it operational within 45 days.
On February 20, the US Supreme Court ruled that the IEEPA, on which the tariffs imposed by Trump were based, did not grant the President the authority to impose tariffs.
In a petition filed with the US Court of Appeals on February 27, the US Department of Justice said that the customs duty refund process is extremely complex and that similar processes have taken years in the past, requesting an additional 90 days to evaluate options.
On March 2, the US Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration’s request to suspend or delay the refund of customs duties that had been ruled unlawful.
-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU
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