Plan emerges for $166 billion in tariff refunds. But don’t hold your breath | CNN Business

A system to process at least $166 billion in tariff refunds could be up and running in 45 days. That’s the alternative to a manual process that could take 4 million hours, according to a senior US Customs and Border Protection executive. However, it’s still anyone’s guess as to when the more than 330,000 US importers who paid the levies as part of President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade agenda will see those funds. Last month the Supreme Court struck down the bulk of the sweeping global tariffs Trump enacted. In a court filing on Friday, Brandon Lord, executive director of Trade Policy and Programs at CBP, said the agency is “making all possible efforts” to have a new automated process requiring “minimal submission from importers” ready in 45 days. The updates are necessary to manage the “unprecedented volume of refunds” CBP was ordered to process by a Court of International Trade judge this week. Nintendo, Costco, Fedex and thousands of other businesses sued the government in an effort to get tariff refunds, but that may not now be necessary. Instead, under the new system, importers would file declarations listing all the instances they paid the now-invalidat