Trump admin approves $166 billion tariff refund sytem tonight

By TheStreet Roundtable

about 19 hours ago

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The Donald Trump administration is expected to launch a tariff refund system following the Supreme Court striking them down.

It was on Apr. 2, 2025, that Trump began the global tariff war and issued "reciprocal tariffs" in the range of 10% to 50% on imports from foreign countries.

Whether it's China or the United Kingdom, no nation got spared.

How Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs impacted markets

Trump called Apr. 2 "Liberation Day" as he promised to liberate Americans from what he called excessive trade barriers faced by U.S. exports.

However, the market didn't react kindly to the announcement and crashed due to the sudden disruption in the global supply chain.

In fact, the total crypto market cap declined from $2.74 trillion on Apr. 2 to $2.42 trillion on Apr. 8.

When Trump decided to rescind the tariffs on all countries except China for a 90-day window on Apr. 9, the digital assets market began to recover and, over the next months, became quite resilient to sudden tariff announcements.

Gradually, the market became quite used to Trump's tariff escalations and eventually, Bitcoin (BTC) hit an all-time high of $126,080 on Oct. 6 as the total crypto market cap reached $4.37 trillion.

It all seemed alright until Oct. 10, when Trump suddenly threatened to hike tariffs on China by 100%, and the crypto market again collapsed. In fact, over $19 billion in crypto leveraged positions got wiped out in a day.

Since then, it has been downhill with mild but ultimately unsuccessful recovery phases in the crypto market.

Bitcoin is trading 40% lower at $75,277.92 at press time, with the total crypto market at $2.57 trillion.

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Why Supreme Court struck down Trump's tariffs

To impose "Liberation Day" tariffs without the need to consult with the U.S. Congress, the Trump administration invoked a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

Trade deficits constituted a national emergency and it wasn't necessary to go through the lengthy Congress process, the Trump administration argued.

But many businesses, including FedEx and Costco, and 12 U.S. states, mostly governed by the Democratic Party, got frustrated by rising costs and challenged Trump's tariff authority in the Supreme Court.

The hearing went on for months, and ultimately the Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 20, 2026, that Trump overstepped his constitutional authority and the IEEPA doesn't authorize him to impose tariffs.

The ruling upended tariffs in two categories: “reciprocal” tariffs on different countries and a 25% tariff on some goods from Canada, China, and Mexico for their alleged failure to curb fentanyl's flow into the U.S.

How businesses can claim $166 billion in tariff refunds

On Apr. 10, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced it will launch the first phase of the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) tool in the Automated Commercial Environment Secure Data (ACE) Portal at 8 A.M. ET on Apr. 20.

Requesting IEEPA duty refunds requires only the following summarized actions:

Importers and their custom brokers have an established ACE Secure Data Portal (ACE Portal) account.
Refund recipients provide bank account details for refunds to the CBP.
Importers and brokers submit CAPE Declarations in the ACE Portal.

In a filing, CBP executive director Brandon Lord revealed that as of March 4, over 330,000 importers have made more than 53 million entries who had paid about $166 billion in tariffs that will be refunded.

It is the first phase in the Trump administration refunding tariffs after the Supreme Court ruling. This initial stage is restricted to certain unliquidated entries and those within 80 days of final accounting.

Once a claim is approved, the claimant will get a refund within 60-90 days. But complex refund claims could take longer to process.