Despite Friday’s Supreme Court ruling ruling that President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs are illegal, U.S. importers are still paying duties on goods imported into the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has not yet updated its cargo system management services to eliminate tariffs imposed by President Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Under U.S. trade policy, Customs is required to post updates on tariff changes and other trade-related information to the Freight System Messaging Service.
On Friday, Customs posted a bulletin on the decision, saying, “CBP is working with other government agencies to fully consider the impact of the SCOTUS decision. CBP will provide additional information and technical guidance to Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) filers as it becomes available.”
CNBC was told by Customs that this is the latest information for importers at this time.
A paperless automated commercial environment is a customs system used to process imports and exports. An executive order signed by President Trump in March tasked CBP with modernizing its manual payment system.
“Customs has not removed the requirement to report IEEPA tariff codes to obtain release of goods, so in order for cargo to continue moving, IEEPA tariffs must still be reported at entry,” explained Lori Mullins, director of operations at Rogers & Brown Custom Brokers. “We are still waiting for a CSMS message confirming the changes to allow entry without these duties, but at this time those changes have not been made and customs are still requesting the duties.”
From Friday to Sunday, 211,000 containers of goods worth an estimated $8.2 billion arrived at U.S. ports, according to Vizion’s trade platform Tradeview.
Mullins said importers have a 10-day grace period to pay the duties.
“Since no money is actually transferred until the 10th day, you can amend your custom entry summary until the 9th day after the shipment is released, which means the payment is made on the 10th day. After that, you must post the payment and then submit a post summary amendment for refund.”
The question is how CBP will process cargo release entries from the past 10 days that will be paid next week, customs brokers and trade lawyers say.
“It will take time for Customs to reconfigure its systems to reflect the court’s decision,” said Michael Rowell, partner and chair of the global regulatory enforcement group at law firm Reed Smith. “So this weekend, the importer will submit a document with the duty, and then when Customs updates the system, the importer will submit a summary amendment (before payment) and remove the duty.Then the goods will arrive duty-free this weekend.”
But Lowell warned that the sheer volume of amendments would slow the process.
“Remediation typically takes several weeks up to 30 days,” he said. “However, given the scale of the issue this weekend, there may be some delays.”
This is just another layer of uncertainty weighing on importers. Issues surrounding refunds not decided by the Supreme Court will be decided by the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT).
“This is the first time a tariff of this magnitude has been declared unconstitutional,” said Ben Bidwell, senior director of customs at CH Robinson. “Therefore, many questions remain as to whether the International Trade Court will take action paving the way for widespread refunds, whether some businesses will be able to receive partial refunds, or whether refunds are even on the table.”
In a customer Q&A regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling, leading transportation and fulfillment services firm Kuehne & Nagel urged customers to have all customs documents in order when CIT considers refunds.
“CIT is expected to process all refund mechanisms, but there is no timeline. A large number of claims could result in delays of several years,” Kuehne+Nagel said.
CIT has not yet responded to CNBC’s request for comment.
