Xinhua News Agency, New York, April 14 (Reporter Liu Yannan) - The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on the 14th that it has basically completed the first phase of development of a new customs declaration system feature for large-scale refunds to importers and will start the related tariff refund work on the 20th.

Officials of the agency said in a statement filed with the U.S. Court of International Trade that the CBP is developing new functional modules for the customs declaration system, and the first phase of development has been basically completed and tested.

The officials said that the CBP will issue refunds to importers or their designated parties through electronic payments. As of the 9th, more than 56,000 importers or their designated parties have completed the process of receiving electronic payments. It is expected that about 82% of the customs declarations, involving approximately $127 billion, can be refunded through electronic payments among the tariffs paid under the U.S. International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced a ruling on February 20 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to impose large-scale tariffs. A judge of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled on March 4 that the CBP must not impose tariffs based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in tariff settlements. This means that the tariffs previously imposed under this act need to be refunded.

The CBP submitted a statement to the U.S. Court of International Trade on March 6, saying that due to technical, process, and human resource limitations, it is not yet possible to refund the tariffs according to the court's ruling. As of early March, more than 330,000 importers in the United States had submitted more than 53 million customs declarations under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and prepaid or paid tariff taxes, involving approximately $166 billion in funds.

Source: Xinhua News Agency