about 166 billion dollars

In a brief to the International Trade Court, Brandon Lord, executive director of the agency’s Trade Policy and Programs Directorate, explained that “CBP cannot comply with the International Trade Court’s order of March 4, 2026.”

The tariffs were imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977a regulation originally designed to confront serious national emergencies, such as security threats or specific economic crises. However, the Supreme Court concluded last month that this law did not legally justify the imposition of most of the global tariffs applied by the Trump administration, making them illegal and forcing the Government to refund them.

According to CBP, approximately $166 billion (about €143 billion) in taxes and deposits were collected during the period in which these emergency tariffs were in effect. These tariffs affected numerous countries and products, with the stated objective of protecting American industry from trade practices considered unfair.

However, the agency has indicated that around of 20.1 million entries related to these tariffs were not settled or finalized as of March 4, 2026, which would complicate the immediate return of payments, according to Reuters. CBP has warned that due to the magnitude of the operations and the complexity of administrative records, the refund process could be limited or significantly delayed.

As explained by Brandon Lord, an official in CBP’s commercial division, “existing administrative procedures and technology are not adequate for a task of this scale and will require manual work that will prevent personnel from fully carrying out the agency’s commercial control mission.”

For this reason, he explained that “personnel will be redirected from responsibilities that serve to mitigate imminent threats to national security and economic security,” according to Axios.

Lord explained that the agency is working on a new feature for its system to streamline the refund process. However, he clarified that it will only be ready in 45 days.

Therefore, as of April 20, they will be able to begin processing returns.